Channel 4 documentary about British comedian Rosie Jones highlights how technology can protect social media users from online hate

Arwen.ai are delighted to play a role in a Channel 4 documentary about British comedian Rosie Jones. The programme, which airs on Thursday 20th July at 10pm GMT on Channel 4, highlights the role technology can play in protecting social media users from toxic online hate.

In the unflinching Channel 4 documentary, Rosie – who has cerebral palsy – revealed the vile abuse she and other disabled people receive online daily, where she is often called the ‘R’ word and even receives rape and death threats because of her disability.

During the film Rosie sets out to try to understand how prevalent disability trolling is in the UK and why it is often left completely unchecked. She sets herself the challenge of confronting a troll directly, as well as discussing how Arwen have helped protect her from the abuse she faces.  

The need to get this solution into the hands of the people affected has never been greater, with social media hate growing by 40% since 2020 and spam content by 350% each year. 

Arwen AI, who have been working with Rosie since early 2022 and have developed a solution which enables high-profile individuals and brands – as well as regular social media users – to remove spam, hate and abusive comments from social media by automatically detecting unwanted content.

The solution can help protect social media users from toxic online environments while also increasing commercial opportunities for high-profile individuals working with brands and sponsors by creating safer, more positive and inclusive online communities.

Arwen AI was founded in 2020 in response to the online abuse directed at the TV personality Caroline Flack, which contributed to her tragic death, and the concept was developed further during the Euro 2020 final, following the abuse directed at England footballers Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho after their penalty shootout misses.

Arwen AI works by using artificial intelligence to remove spam, hate and other unwanted content from social media. Its unique platform blends proprietary algorithms with algorithms hand-selected from the open market, to continually scan for 24 types of unwanted content, in 29 languages. 

Each Arwen client has a tailored version of Arwen working for them, personalised to their values. Arwen score every comment instantly and when an item is found that breaks the client’s tolerances, it automatically hides it from the view of the community – all in real time. 

And there are clear reasons why more and more individuals and organisations are deciding it's time to start moderating social media:

1. Improved engagement. Safer more inclusive communities have better engagement metrics. In just 3 months Arwen got 29.4% of Mercedes AMG F1 followers posting again, because they felt safer to do so
2. Improved productivity and wellbeing. Arwen's customers on average reduce the time spent tackling toxicity by 75%. Instead, their wellbeing is protected and they spend their time nurturing a positive community.
3. Reduced cost. Manually moderating comments, or maintaining complex key word lists are fast becoming unnecessary overheads. Arwen reduces the cost of manual moderation by 60%.
4. Meeting their values. Diversity and Inclusion has become a critical C-suite agenda, to help organisations attract and engage both customers and employees. With more and more of those conversations taking place on social media, the greater the need to 'walk the walk' and actively moderate healthy conversations.

Arwen AI protects 423 million users globally. In addition to Rosie Jones, clients include the FIA, Mercedes AMG F1, Burnley FC, Northampton Saints, Michael Owen and Steve Baker MP. 

Joel Bailey, co-founder and Product & Service Director of Arwen AI, commented:

“Working with Rosie Jones has been a truly eye-opening experience and has really brought home the level of ableist and homophobic abuse people endure online on a daily basis.

“We’re proud to be featured in such an important documentary which aims to shine a light on just how toxic social media has become, both for high profile individuals receiving a constant stream of vile abuse and for everyday users trying to engage positively with content in an increasingly negative environment.

“However, we also need to be practical - just as we can’t eradicate hate from the offline world, we shouldn’t expect to eradicate it from the online world. Regulation and action from the networks are both important, but hoping for it to create an online utopia is dangerously optimistic. Instead, our mission at Arwen is to provide the people being affected with protection today.