London/Delhi: The Indian social media platform, Pixstory app, took the centre-stage at the much-anticipated Arsenal vs Manchester United game at the Emirates stadium on Sunday.
NBA star and Pixstory brand ambassador Dwight Howard kicked off proceedings with a pitch for a cleaner social media. This was followed by more than 50,000 fans in the stadium using Pixstory clappers to make some noise and raise awareness against online hate.
“Misinformation undermines our democracies and our societies. Imagine the toxicity, harassment and hate speech our children are at risk of enduring on a daily basis. I know how it affects me. And I don’t want any athlete, any child, any fan, or anyone on or off the field, to go through this,” said Howard, addressing the capacity crowd.
In attendance were global honchos from the corporate world including Amit Mittal, former special advisor to President Joe Biden, Yosuke Sasaki, Softbank chief of staff, and Cara Sweeney, senior Coca Cola official. They were joined by Olympic sprinter Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake and top journalists, including Variety Executive Editor Steven Gaydos and Athletic Senior Editor Kevin Coulson.
Speaking at the occasion, Pixstory founder Appu Suresh said: “We are trying to create a space where integrity is valued over virality. Community over conflict. The truth over trolls. Our phone is the field, and our words are the football.”
Arsenal is perched comfortably at the top of the EPL table and is the frontrunner to win the Premier League this year. And thanks to its winning partnership with Pixstory, fans have another reason to cheer with an app that provides a new way to engage with each other online without having to worry about hate speech. Using cutting-edge AI, Pixstory’s algorithms filter out hate speech, promoting decency in conversations and breaking the echo chambers that have formed on social media.
Apart from Arsenal, more marquee clubs including Juventus and PSG Feminines have partnered with Pixstory, the Indian social media startup company, in the mission to build a better social media space. The app is collaborating with the Oxford Internet Institute on research towards building a safer and more collaborative social platform.
The brains behind Pixstory include Chris Mattmann, Chief Technology Officer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and inventor of Apache Tika, a framework for content detection and analysis.
The app’s global board includes Peter Watson, former chief of US International Development Finance Corporation; Koji Tsuruoka, Japan’s former ambassador to the UK; and Cody Keenan, former speechwriter for President Barack Obama, among other illustrious personalities.
Sports is an arena which is grappling with player abuse online. French footballers, including Kylian Mbappe, were hit by racist and hateful comments on social networks during the Fifa World Cup in Qatar. A staggering 92% of the English women’s team received targeted hate speech on social media during Euro 2022. In the world of sports marred by online hate and racism, Pixstory provides an alternative. As clean energy is a response to climate change, clean social is Pixstory’s response to online toxicity. With close to a million users already spread across 120 countries, Pixstory is a beacon of hope, building trust online in a new way.
