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Auschwitz Museum teams up with AI startup to combat hate speech online

11.07.2024 10:30
The Auschwitz Museum announced a collaboration with TrollWall AI, a startup specializing in automatic moderation of hateful and toxic social media comments using artificial intelligence.
Photo:
Photo:Auschwitz Memorial

Paweł Sawicki, responsible for the museum's social media, noted the museum's activity on platforms like X, Facebook, and Instagram. “Every day, we post entries about Auschwitz history and victim biographies. Our profiles have nearly 2.5 million followers, with 4-5 thousand comments daily,” Sawicki said.

While most comments are respectful or historical questions, some violate the memory of the victims, including denialist or anti-Semitic posts. "We also see waves of spam, trolling, data-phishing bots, and disinformation campaigns," Sawicki stated, emphasizing the priority of moderation to protect their community from hate speech.

To address this, the museum partnered with TrollWall AI, an AI-based tool that hides hateful and vulgar comments in real-time on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. TrollWall AI adheres to international legal standards defining hate speech.

“We have the right to freedom of speech, but not to hate speech. By automatically moderating toxic comments, we create a safe, hate-free online space for our followers,” said Tomas Halasz, CEO of TrollWall AI.

Sawicki reported that the tool proved effective in tests and supports multiple languages, which is crucial for the museum. It provides additional security and moderation, especially on Facebook and Instagram.

Social media activities are key to the Memorial Site's educational mission, reaching nearly 2.5 million people, with the largest audience on X and Facebook.

The Germans established Auschwitz in 1940 to imprison Poles. Auschwitz II-Birkenau, built two years later, became a site of Jewish genocide. At least 1.1 million people, mainly Jews, were killed at Auschwitz. Nearly half of the 140-150 thousand Poles deported to the camp died, along with Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, and others.

In 1947, a museum was established on the former Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau grounds. The camp was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

(jh)

Source: PAP, Muzeum Auschwitz