Using machine learning to detect bad behavior on the internet

One of the main problems for networks like Twitter over the years, as I have commented on frequently, is preventing harassment and insults. Since its beginnings, Twitter has sold itself as a defender of freedom of expression, but has ended up creating an environment where that supposed freedom of expression has been severely limited by the activities of trolls and the like. Over time, this harmful environment has caused serious difficulties for Twitter, from slower-than-expected growth to the decision by growing numbers of people not to take part in the conversation and simply lurk. Its future is now in doubt, given that many potential buyers have been put off by the poisonous dynamics on the platform. After many attempts to correct these dynamics, most of which have ignored the real problem Twitter is trying something new: a collaboration With IBM to make its machine learning system, Watson, detect, through the study of conversational patterns, harassment and abusive behavior before they are reported.