AI enabled campaign tackles cyberbullying

A global beauty company has created an AI tool as part of a campaign to tackle cyberbullying.

Leading beauty company Coty has partnered with anti-cyberbullying non-profit Cybersmile, to create a new initiative called #IWILLNOTBEDELETED. The initiative – which will be led by Coty’s cosmetics brand Rimmel – will use an artificial intelligence driven tool to support people who have been cyberbullied about their appearance, which is also known as beauty cyberbullying.

Research conducted by Rimmel reveals that one in four women has been a victim of beauty cyberbullying – and this has resulted in 115 million images being deleted on social media each year. #IWILLNOTBEDELETED will create an online space for young people to share and solve their beauty cyberbullying experiences. In addition, Rimmel and Cybersmile will work together to create Cybersmile Assistant, an AI driven virtual assistant which will launch in 2019. Cybersmile Assistant will be available in several languages and offer users affected by beauty cyberbullying approved local resources, organisations and helplines that can support them.

Coty hopes that the new initiative will help combat this issue and let social media users express themselves freely, and without fear of negative responses. Furthermore, the initiative is a part of Coty’s ongoing commitment to encouraging self-expression and campaigning against discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender.

At Springwise, we have previously published online tools that help tackle discrimination and prevent bullying. For example, a multi-player online soccer game for children teaches anti-discrimination. Another example is a keyboard plugin for young people that flags offensive messages to prevent cyberbullying.