Discord is purchasing Sentropy. Sentropy is a company that builds AI software solely responsible to deal with online harassment. It not only detects online hate and threats but also removes them from the interweb. The software gives the users an option to report and filter out inappropriate content and messages. Sentropy Protect was its first product that worked for Twitter users to report problematic content.
Currently, a multilevel concept of the approach is practiced by Discord. There is an in-house team of human moderators along with volunteer admins and mods that manages individual servers. Since May 2020 15% of the workforce at Discord is responsible merely to protect users and make policies for content moderation. Furthermore, now Discord aims to use Sentropy’s product in integration with the existing toolkit along with the leadership panel onboard. The companies have not yet revealed the details of the contract signed.
However, one thing that is for sure is that this partnership could be really groundbreaking. Discord has approximately 150 million monthly users or even more and moderating servers is a tough job. Over 19 million individual communities are involved in the service. Due to this reason, both in-house moderators and volunteer teams must work hand in hand.
On the announcement, the CEO of Sentropy John Redgrave said, “T&S tech and processes should not be used as a competitive advantage. We all deserve digital and physical safety, and moderators deserve better tooling to help them do one of the hardest jobs online more effectively and with fewer harmful impacts.”
History of Discord!
Taking serious actions against dangerous online content was not always a priority of Discord. Initially, far-right groups having connections to the real world were very much present and active on the platform creating violence. An anti-racist protestor Heather Heyer was killed in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. After which Discord broke down on extremism and hate speech.
By the start of 2018, the company started a cleanup drive by removing neo-Nazi groups and white supremacists from its platform. They aimed to strengthen their roots of gaming and transform into a regular social network. Now, there are over 150 million users from all communities on the platform.
Redgrave also mentioned the company’s natural connection with Discord:
“Discord represents the next generation of social companies — a generation where users are not the product to be sold, but the engine of connectivity, creativity, and growth. In this model, user privacy and user safety are essential product features, not an afterthought. The success of this model depends upon building next-generation Trust and Safety into every product. We don’t take this responsibility lightly and are humbled to work at the scale of Discord and with Discord’s resources to increase the depth of our impact.”
Out of Stealth is another product of Sentropy. It was launched last summer. It has the AI to identify, track and remove any sort of online harassment or hate from platforms. However, earlier this month the company discontinued its services of Sentropy protect, a free consumer dashboard. Moving forward it will continue to provide Detect and Defend software service to the existing enterprise customers till September end.
Sentropy under Discord!
Sentropy’s products are one of a kind. They are inclined more towards social networking safety instead of a specific platform’s solutions. As per the inside news, it seems like that Sentropy will only continue to thrive and provide better solutions for the interweb users. It also looks like the company will expand its services and products under the backing of Discord.
Looks like Discord has made an excellent investment. It will make the company’s future brighter with even more users and a larger community feeling the platform as their home.
