Discord, the online voice and text messaging platform, has purchased the AI anti-harassment company Sentropy in an effort to increase safety on its platform.
Sentropy Technology will join the Discord team in finding and removing harassment on the Discord platform. Sentropy’s AI technology was previously used to monitor networks for harassment or abuse, and then offer users a way to block problematic users.
Sentropy’s AI will automatically remove harmful or abusive messages before users can see them on platforms like Twitter.
John Redgrave, the CEO and co-founder of Sentropy Technology, announced the acquisition in a post yesterday (July 13), stating that the team is “joining Discord to continue fighting against hate and abuse on the internet”.
“When we first met with Discord’s founders, Jason and Stan, we quickly recognized a shared vision of what the future of social interaction could be and we believe that together, we have a better chance of making that vision a reality,” added Redgrave.
Discord, which is primarily used by gamers, has been utilised by several far-right groups in the past. Several white nationalist groups in America have used the app as a hub, although Discord has purged a number of notable groups since it started operating.
Officials at Discord announced that the platform had removed over 2,000 extremist communities during 2020. A detailed breakdown of reports received from users showed that 37.3 per cent of complaints were related to harassment.
Sentropy will close its Twitter Detect and Defend service on September 30 later this year. Detect and Defend automatically detects abusive content online and provides users the chance to block it. Sentropy’s Defend service, which gave moderators tools to identify specific types of abuse, was shut down on July 1.
Elsewhere, the PC port of the Ninja Gaiden Master Collection received a new update which added a selection of graphical options to the game.
The post Discord steps up anti-harrassment efforts with new AI acquisition appeared first on NME.
