Bleep Offers Customizable Content Moderation SHARE
Content moderation is often seen in binary terms. Platforms are either seen to moderate too little, prompting demands for government‐imposed responsibility, or too much, inspiring proposals for state‐mandated restraint. Any universally applicable policy or standard cannot satisfy both demands. Yet some tensions can be resolved by simply giving users more control over content moderation.
At the Game Developers Conference in mid‐March, Intel debuted an audio moderation tool called Bleep. Bleep will allow users to filter video game audio in real time, excluding potentially offensive speech. In most online games, pseudonymous players are drafted into one‐off teams. While real‐time audio communication is vital for teamwork, it’s also a potent vector for harassment. Audio conversation is spread across many different matches, and happens in real time, making effective top‐down moderation difficult.