Arsenal Joins New Social Platform
Premier League football club Arsenal FC has announced a new partnership with US-based social media platform Pixstory, which focuses on to combating abuse and hate speech in online fan conversations.
The Gunners joined the platform on Wednesday 7th September under the handle @Arsenal.
Arsenal is the third major European club to join the Pixstory platform, following in the footsteps of Juventus and Paris Saint Germain Feminine.
According to a statement, Pixstory has designed an ecosystem to actively reduce ‘polarisation, disincentivise hate and misinformation’.
The company uses verification and integrity scores for accounts, ‘challenge and support’ functions that allow users to question or validate posts with rationale, and an AI system that detects context-based hate speech. Pixstory also does not collect or sell user data.
Juliet Slot, Arsenal’s Chief Commercial Officer, said, “We’re committed to fighting the toxicity and abuse that has become all too common online.
“We’ve done a lot of work internally to protect our players from harmful abuse and we already work with external partners to help us take meaningful action against abusers. Now, we’re delighted to partner with Pixstory. When used in the right way, social media can be a wonderful place for supporter engagement and information sharing.”
Appu Esthose Suresh, the founder of Pixstory, added, “The unprecedented level of hate and misinformation amplified by social media is the largest threat to humanity. Pixstory models itself along the lines of clean energy to build an alternative on the internet, let’s call it ‘clean social’.
“We want to leverage the power of sports to bring in social change. We are excited to find a partner in Arsenal which has a proven track record of proactively fighting hate and misinformation.”
The North London club has already entered a partnership to help fight social media abuse. Arsenal works with technology company Signify, that uses its technology to help the club identify abusers, including those who send it anonymously.
Image: Shutterstock
