Every year, social media grows, helped by the quick development of digital technologies. The results of 2022 Hootsuite research showed that 4.62 billion people use social media, globally. We saw a 10% growth from the previous year. Currently, in 2024, there is a huge spike in growth. The amount of people using social media to create, share, and trade content is growing as these platforms continue to develop.
Due to this, there has been a massive increase in user-generated content as a new platform for information dissemination, social networking, and participation in online groups and discussions. Polaris Market Research estimated the global user-generated content platform market was worth over $3 billion in 2020. Furthermore, it is expected to rise at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.1% to reach over $20 billion by 2028.
Challenges Of Content Moderation
Due to the surge in user-generated material, it is becoming difficult for human moderators to handle large amounts of data. Social media has changed user expectations. So, moderators now face an even greater problem in checking for online content. Users may become less tolerant of online content-sharing laws and guidelines and more demanding. Moreover, manual moderation can be quite uncomfortable. The reason is that there is a high chance of exposing human moderators to problematic content on a regular basis. This is when AI content moderation becomes useful.
AI For Content Moderation
The process of content moderation can be improved with the aid of artificial intelligence AI. AI-powered systems, for instance, can automatically identify and categorize potentially hazardous information, which speeds up and improves the efficiency of the moderation process as a whole.
1. Scalability and Speed: Have you ever considered the volume of data produced daily in the digital world? The World Economic Forum did a research. It is estimated that by 2025, human activity will generate approximately 463 exabytes of data every day. One exabyte is equivalent to one billion gigabytes. Also, more than 200 million videos every day will be generated. There will be so much user-generated content that it will be difficult for humans to keep up. AI, on the other hand, can handle data in real time and is scalable over various channels. When it comes to the sheer number and size of user-generated information that AI can recognize and check, it can outperform humans. Artificial intelligence AI can quickly process vast volumes of data and scale on demand in content moderation.
2. Automation and Content Filtering: Handling the massive amount of data created by users makes content moderation a difficult task that requires scalable solutions. Texts, images, and videos may all be automatically screened for harmful content using AI for content moderation. AI may assist human moderators in the content review process by filtering and classifying content. Some content is deemed unsuitable for the particular situation. Removal of such content is necessary. This helps brands maintain the safety and cleanliness of their content.
3. Less Exposure To Harmful Content: Human moderators frequently have to deal with objectionable information. Still, users frequently question their intervention. The reason is, they believe that the moderators are prejudiced in their decisions. Moderation is a difficult task for humans due to the large amount of offensive stuff that is available. It may even have detrimental psychological repercussions. Artificial intelligence can help human moderators by sifting questionable content for human review. This reduces the amount of content that humans are exposed to and spares content moderation teams from having to go through every item that users report. AI has the potential to increase productivity from human work. How? By enabling humans to handle internet content more quickly, efficiently, and error-free.
4. Moderation Of Live Content: AI could be applied to the analysis of live content in content moderation. In order to give users a secure experience, real-time data must be moderated. Artificial intelligence can assist with livestream content monitoring. It can quickly evaluate content and automatically identify any detrimental cases prior to them being live.
Applications of AI Content Moderation
Let's now examine some instances of content that artificial intelligence can automatically censor.
1. Abusive Content: Abusive content includes various forms of cyberbullying, cyberaggression, hate speech, and abusive conduct. With the use of natural language processing and picture processing, a number of businesses and social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, use AI automation to enhance reporting options and expedite the moderation process overall.
2. Adult Content: Any inappropriate or sexually explicit content is considered adult content. Based on image processing, automated adult content regulation is frequently utilized in messaging apps, video platforms, dating and e-commerce websites, forums, and comment sections. As of February 2020, Statista data indicates that approximately 500 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube per minute. For moderators, sorting through such vast volumes of content is a difficult task. AI-assisted moderation, however, can expedite the process of protecting video platforms against offensive content.
3. Profanity: Profanity basically refers to the use of language that is considered disrespectful, vulgar, or rude. Examples of such language include foul language and vulgar jokes. We all know how extensively these people use such things on the internet. AI can identify offensive and filthy terms by using natural language processing, as well as a string of random characters and symbols that stand in for swear words.
4. Fake and Misleading Content: False content aggressively spreads false information on social media platforms in an effort to obfuscate the truth and sway public opinion, among other goals. Fake content can be produced by AI bots and appear as news stories, product reviews, and comments.
Conclusion
It gets harder for businesses to keep up with the requirement to review information before it goes live as user-generated content keeps growing. One practical remedy for this escalating problem is AI content moderation. Artificial intelligence AI can safeguard moderators from objectionable content, enhance user and brand safety, and streamline operations by employing a variety of automated techniques to relieve human moderators of tedious and unpleasant jobs at various stages of content moderation. Brands may find that combining AI and human knowledge is the best way to control offensive information on the internet and keep people safe.
