Arsenal announce partnership with Pixstory to fight online abuse

English football club Arsenal have announced a partnership with Pixstory, an integrity-based social media platform, to reduce abuse and hate speech in online fan conversations, and have joined the platform under the handle @Arsenal.

Pixstory also partnered with Juventus and Paris-Saint German Féminine in 2021 and has now added Arsenal to its portfolio. 

A club’s statement on their website said:

“Pixstory’s USP is zero tolerance for online toxicity. Its ecosystem is designed to actively reduce polarisation, as well as disincentivise hate and misinformation. This is done through verification and integrity scores for accounts, ‘challenge and support’ functions that allow users to question or validate posts with rationale, and an AI system that detects context-based hate speech through a constantly evolving process. 

“The app aims to be an ethical social media platform by prioritising people over profit. It doesn’t collect or sell user data, but it retains the user experience with strong checks and balances through design and tech innovations.“

Commenting on partnership, Juliet Slot, Chief Commercial Officer at Arsenal FC, said: 

“We’re committed to fighting the toxicity and abuse that has become all too common online.

“We’ve done a lot of work internally to protect our players from harmful abuse and we already work with external partners to help us take meaningful action against abusers. Now, we’re delighted to partner with Pixstory. When used in the right way, social media can be a wonderful place for supporter engagement and information sharing.“

Appu Esthose Suresh, founder of Pixstory, added: 

“The unprecedented level of hate and misinformation amplified by social media is the largest threat to humanity. Pixstory models itself along the lines of clean energy to build an alternative on the internet, let’s call it Clean Social.

“We want to leverage the power of sports to bring in social change. We are excited to find a partner in Arsenal which has a proven track record of proactively fighting hate and misinformation.“