Twitter Troll Problem: Social Media Platform Teams Up With IBM Watson To Curb Online Abuse

Twitter is partnering with IBM to use its AI technology Watson on its continuous fight against online abuse, the site’s vice-president of data strategy Chris Moody said at IBM’s InterConnect conference this week.

Watson can analyze and interpret data, including unstructured text, images, audio and video, which could help Twitter stop trolls.

Read: Twitter Trolls Update: Three Ways Platform Will Curb Abusive Accounts, Including Expanded Mute Button

“Watson is really good at understanding nuances in language and intention,” said Moody. “What we want to do is be able to identify abuse patterns early and stop this behavior before it starts.”

Moody said “early testing is super promising” and will return to the conference next year to talk about results of the tool.

Twitter’s recent partnership with IBM Watson comes after numerous steps to curb abusive content on the social media site.

“We have had some abuse on the platform. We’ve talked very publicly in the in the last few months and said our number one priority is to stop the abuse,” Moody said. “But it’s a very, very hard challenge.”

Twitter’s Fight Against Online Abuse

Twitter has previously announced measures to curb online abuse, including new filtering options for notifications. The company added changes to the platform last year and earlier this year, which included stopping the creation of new abusive accounts by banned users, strengthening safer search results and hiding abusive Tweets.

Read: Facebook, Twitter, Google Scams: EU Orders Companies To Curb Problem Or Face 'Enforcement Action'

Twitter has also banned abusive accounts, including that of former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos after he attacked Ghostbusters actress Leslie Jones. Last November, the platform suspended numerous alt-right accounts, including that of white nationalist Richard Spencer (his account was reinstated about a month later).

Twitter has also been cracking down on extremists using the platform. The company said this week it has suspended more than 636,000 accounts between Aug. 1, 2015 and Dec. 31, 2016.

Twitter Evolution and Trump

Moody also spoke about the evolution of Twitter, adding that that the site recently turned 11 years old.

He also mentioned the site’s fan -- President Donald Trump.

“Many of you know the latest evolution (of Twitter) — the President of the United States is using the platform daily. He’s delivering, let’s call it a daily State of the Union, that’s the easiest way I can describe it,” he said.

Last month, Twitter COO Anthony Noto said in an interview with CNBC that the company “loves” President Trump’s use of the site.

Here’s Moody’s complete address: