Catching Cyberbullies with Neural Networks

According to a 2016 report, 47% of internet users have experienced online harassment or abuse [1], and 27% of all American internet users self-censor what they say online because they are afraid of being harassed. On a similar note, a survey by The Wikimedia Foundation (the organization behind Wikipedia) showed that 38% of the editors had encountered harassment, and over half them said this lowered their motivation to contribute in the future [2]; a 2018 study found 81% of American respondents wanted companies to address this problem [3]. If we want safe and productive online platforms where users do not chase each other away, something needs to be done. One solution to this problem might be to use human moderators that read everything and take action if somebody crosses a boundary, but this is not always feasible (nor safe for the mental health of the moderators); popular online games can have the equivalent population of a large city playing at any one time, with hundreds of thousands of conversations taking place simultaneously. And much like a city, these players can be very diverse.