Visual Content Moderation AI For Social Platforms and Marketplaces

Making content safe and marketplaces compliant

Doing the work that humans just can’t do, and at machine speed


Some content should never be seen: find it and block it with Visual-AI

Most user generated content today is visual, either as images, video or both. From social platforms to video chat platforms, gaming platforms, social marketplaces, and even the metaverse, user generated visual content is hard to find and moderate. Whether your problem is simply blocking infringing/non-compliant products from your social marketplace or the more complex issue of NSFW, racist or other hate speech content – the main limitation is humans vs. massive volumes. But not for Visual-AI (computer vision).

Nudity - social media content moderation

Visual-AI built for content moderation & compliance

VISUA has developed a proprietary, built-for-purpose technology stack that combines multiple computer vision technologies to deliver accurate visual content detection at scale. Logo detection, text detection, object detection and visual search, all combined and tuned for precision that you can rely on. Add to that both no-code and API implementation options, plus in-the-cloud and/or on-premise deployment, and you have the perfect Visual-AI solution.

CONTENT MODERATION FAQ

What is Visual Content Moderation?

Typical content moderation looks at text to monitor subject and themes that go against the policy of a site. Visual Content Moderation does the same for images and videos contained on a site. This has become of key importance with the growth of platforms that host user generated content.

Visual content is difficult to moderate and requires computer vision technology tuned for this specific task. Needs also differ as user content and social media platforms wish to screen for varied themes, such as nudity, weapons, violence, hate speech, and terrorism, while ecommerce and social commerce platforms look for things like trademark, copyright, and design infringements.

Why is the inclusion of computer vision in content moderation important?

Content moderation has become crucial to protect the public and the platforms themselves. But the growth of visual content has brought with it its own challenges. These can be addressed with inclusion of computer vision in the moderation process. Content online is increasingly visual. Gaming platforms, messaging apps, social media apps, video sharing platforms and more all host a large and growing percentage of visual content. In some cases, visual content is at the very core of the platform. Many automated systems are only text-based, leaving humans to do most of the visual work. This can cause a number of issues including enabling more room for error and causing distress to employees or contractors. Visual-AI overcomes all these challenges, at levels of efficiency and cost that simply cannot be matched by humans.

Can you moderate all types of visual media?

Yes. Any popular image and video formats can be processed and checked, including streaming video formats.

Do you support real-time processing?

Absolutely. One of the key advantages of VISUA’s Visual-AI technology is our extremely low latency real-time processing, which is ideal in live streaming applications or where you require content to be checked in real-time.

Do you provide moderation of non-visual elements, like text?

VISUA is a leading computer vision company and we have worked very hard to develop the most precise visual content moderation technology that can process content at massive scale. Our goal is to always provide the best visual moderation technology that can operate alongside text-based moderation systems rather than trying to be an all-round content moderation service.

We currently use human moderators, why should I consider using computer vision?

There are four major reasons for incorporating computer vision into a currently human-based moderation process.

Speed: One averagely resourced Visual-AI system can do the work of hundreds and even thousands of humans. As the content volume and/or complexity scales you would have to hire ever more people to try to keep up with the task. Visual-AI can process images and videos in seconds and can handle millions of images per day, automatically blocking them or flagging them for human review, as appropriate. Additionally, Visual-AI never sleeps or takes breaks, allowing your moderation service to operate around the clock 365 days per year.

Trauma: There are numerous accounts by ex-moderators of having to view horrifically disturbing content. This causes immense distress and ultimately burnout. In some cases it has led to employees taking legal action against their employers. Visual-AI has no emotion and reviews content dispassionately, therefore avoiding these issues entirely.

Cost: Scaling a business that must rely on humans as a core part of the business process is ultimately flawed. Instead, Visual-AI can scale easily and quickly. Once trained on the specifics of what you wish to detect and block it can double its throughput in a matter of hours by adding additional processing and memory resources. Doing the same with humans would take weeks/months and cost exponentially more. Not to mention the issues around lay-offs when you wish to scale a specific operation back, whereas you simply turn-off a Visual-AI system if it is no longer needed.

Appropriateness: Overall, humans are not best equipped to handle the task of moderating content. Concentration and accuracy drop based on levels of fatigue, boredom, stress and burn-out. These factors do not affect a computer vision system, which is designed to handle massive volumes of visual content hour after day, day after day.

Will computer vision replace all the human moderators?

Absolutely not. It can be argued that humans are not the most appropriate resource to deal with massive volumes of visual content, but it can equally be argued that Visual-AI is not best suited when it comes to making decisions about edge case content. For instance, is an image ‘violent’ or is it journalistic content in the public interest? Does a video contain gratuitous nudity or is it an artistic piece. Where Visual-AI sees black and white, humans can see shades of grey, allowing them to make more informed decisions. Humans will therefore always be of key importance in making determinations in these edge cases. But instead of grinding through thousands of images, they are reviewing only a small number that require the higher-level intelligence that only humans can apply.

I am interested in visual moderation for social media/UGC platforms. How can it help me?

Social Media has arguably had the biggest impact on society in history since the investigation of the printing press. Yet it is also one of the most divisive innovations in history. The challenge comes from the ability of individuals and groups to post inappropriate, damaging and misinforming content at will. Combined with the massive volume and breadth of predominantly visual content content, social media platforms have been challenged to keep up.

With Visual-AI, hate symbols, offensive text (burnt into images and videos) and imagery, nudity, controlled objects and substances, can all be detected and immediately blocked or flagged for review by the content moderation team.

I am interested in visual moderation for ecommerce/social commerce. How can it help me?

Ecommerce platforms are increasingly being held to task by legitimate manufacturers and rights holders. High-profile legal cases have penalised platforms for allowing counterfeit and copyright/trademark infringing products to be sold. Equally, sites that allowed products containing racist or hate speech to be created have seen large-scale and very public backlash.

Visual-AI can protect these platforms from these issues by checking products and designs uploaded to the platform before they go live. This dramatically reduces the strain on Trust and Safety teams, making it easier for platforms to stay compliant.

I am interested in visual moderation for live streaming. How can it help me?

Live Streaming videos are particularly complex when it comes to moderation. You need to detect and block infringing content, but you can’t cause lag or delay in the stream. VISUA’s highly efficient computer vision technology added to its on-premise and on-device capabilities allow moderation of live content without degrading the user experience.

I am interested in visual moderation for video hosting. How can it help me?

Users of video hosting services will often have agendas and needs that may go against the policies of the service providers. Content needs to be checked thoroughly to ensure offending content can be blocked before it goes live. But this requires advanced technologies that can check videos to a high frame-rate so that even fleeting infringements can be caught.

VISUA can check videos frame by frame in real-time to detect and block a wide range of infringing content.

I am interested in visual moderation for gaming. How can it help me?

Gaming platforms typically have numerous channels which require tight moderation, both inside and outside the platform. Many allow chats, image and video sharing, and custom skin creation, all of which requires moderation – especially where minors are often a large part of the user base. Visual-AI can detect and flag visual content that breaches the terms and conditions of the platform.

How does your computer vision technology compare with other key offerings, like Microsoft, Google or Amazon?

There are many reasons why some computer vision providers are better than others. It would be outside the scope of this answer to list them all, but the key reasons are as follows:

1) Most offerings are not purpose built for the task of visual content moderation. VISUA’s API was.

2) One important factor in moderating visual content is the ability to quickly and easily add new logos, marks and other visual themes to the library. Not all computer vision APIs allow this and even the ones that do require lengthy training. VISUA’s API is the only one with our patented Adaptive Learning Engine, which eliminates the need for training data in many cases or at least drastically reduces the volume of training data required. This allows you to react quickly to new content themes that infringe your content policies.

3) In applications looking for real-time processing you’ll need a computer vision solution that can be deployed on-premise. VISUA’s offering is the only one that supports this.

4) Batched task processing is essential for efficient API calls. It allows you to fire multiple tasks from a single API call rather than having to make multiple calls on the same piece of media. Only VISUA and Microsoft’s APIs provide Batched Task Processing.

We have also developed specific comparison documents, which are available in our Resources section. However, if you would like to discuss this further please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Surely we can just build this ourselves?

Yes, you may well be able to build this yourself. But the key question is what are the pros and cons of doing so? You could build a CRM system for your business, but in virtually every case you’ll instead go use Hubspot, Salesforce or similar. Building your own CRM, although technically possible, provides no major advantage to your business.

Similarly, building your own computer vision solution, specifically to moderate visual content, also doesn’t make sense for the following reasons:

  1. The problem exists today – you don’t have time to develop this tech, while infringing content is getting through undetected.
  2. Visual-AI (computer vision) is a very specific discipline of machine learning and requires expertise that you likely don’t have.
  3. Building a low scale solution is achievable – building a solution that can deal with the massive scale usually required in production environments is a much more complex proposition.
  4. Building a Visual-AI solution that allows you to easily add new logos, marks and other graphical themes in minutes and doesn’t require massive volumes of model training data every time is not something you’ll have access to with off-the-shelf API solutions.
  5. Currently available computer vision APIs do not provide on-premise capabilities – vital for low-latency implementation.

I need an on-premise computer vision solution, can you support that?

Great question. This is another quite unique offering from VISUA. Deployment can be implemented in the cloud, on-premise or even a combination of cloud and on-premise if required.

How easy is it to integrate your API into a platform?

We like to think that our Visual-AI (computer vision) API is very easy to implement as part of any workflow, in fact, in most cases implementation takes as little as two hours. We have very clear API documentation also. But we are not simply an API provider, so do not hesitate to get in touch with any questions you may have. We also implement a very thorough onboarding process and as a client you will have direct access to our team for any ongoing support questions.

We need visual content moderation but we don’t have a platform/want to integrate the detections into our platform. Can you help us?

Absolutely! We have two options for you in this case:

Low-Code: Simply use our API to send us the media you need processed. Once processed we will add our findings into a dedicated dashboard for you to review. You can provide post/file/product details along with the files with the API and these will be added to the dashboard entries, allowing you to quickly click back to the relevant content on your site and take appropriate action.

No-Code: If you don’t have the ability to use our API then our No-Code offering allows you to provide a secure location for images and videos to be collected by our engine for processing. After processing is complete they are loaded into a dedicated dashboard for your review. Adding relevant post/file/product details as part of the content metadata allows us to populate this information alongside the dashboard entries, allowing you to quickly click back to the relevant content on your site and take appropriate action.

Do you have documentation for your API available?

Yes, you can find very clear API documentation for our Logo Detection endpoint, or indeed any of our other technologies. You can find all relevant documentation here.

Do you provide pre and post sales support?

Absolutely! Unlike other solutions on the market that charge significant fees for support, or force you to reach out to third-party consultants, VISUA is proud to be much more than simply an API provider. You can get in touch with any questions you may have during your research and feasibility stage. We also implement a very thorough onboarding process and as a client you will have direct access to our team for any ongoing support questions.

What support packages do you provide for both pre and post integration queries?

VISUA is not a typical API company like other providers. As such we don’t provide ‘support packages’. Support and guidance, both pre and post implementation is part of our DNA. In other words, if you need help with our tech or have questions, we’re here to provide the answers.

We don’t have a Moderation/Trust & Safety team, can VISUA also provide this human service for the review of edge cases?

At VISUA we understand that there are always going to be edge cases in which AI alone is not enough. Regardless of whether you are using our API or No-Code options, we can provide a full end-to-end service whereby we make mid-flow decisions to eliminate false positives or negatives.

We can also provide a full visual moderation service, following your rules and guidelines. This allows us to determine which content should be removed from your platform, drastically reducing the need for final manual determination by your team.

Can we have a demonstration of how it works?

Yes, of course. We can give you a demo of how our visual content moderation API works. Just fill in the form at the bottom of this page or get in touch with us at [email protected] and we can arrange a time.

Protect your users and your platform today

You have the problem of moderating your visual data and we can give you the technology to easily detect the content that puts your customers and platform at risk today. Forget what you think you know about AI for content moderation and compliance. Integrating our technology is easy and fast, with two different options to meet your specific needs, so reach out to discover what Visual-AI/Computer Vision can do for you.

Visual AI Content Detection

End-To-End Moderation Service:

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API Integration:

If you have a platform or software that requires you to display visual data alongside your text or other programmatic analysis, then our API is perfect.

With a simple API call you can unlock the full power of our Visual-AI stack and ingest our JSON feed into your application for the most comprehensive control of your data and the insights you provide.

Batched media and task processing makes our API super easy and efficient, and our team is here to assist with any integration questions you might have.

Visual content moderation

No-Code Solution:

If you just want a visual moderation solution without the need to integrate the technology via API calls, then our ‘No-Code’ implementation is just for you.

You provide access to your visual data, we process it and display it on a dashboard for review. Rules can be applied so content can be immediately blocked/taken down based on what’s found in the media, or flagged for further review as required.

No need for integration. Simply enjoy the benefits of visual moderation without writing a line of code!

Human content moderation

Human Review Service:

Whether you want to use our API or our No-Code Dashboard, there will always be edge cases that will require humans to make a determination.

VISUA can provide mid-flow decisions to eliminate false positives or negatives, reducing the number of clips requiring final review.

However, we can also provide complete visual moderation, following your rules and guidelines. This allows us to determine which content should be removed/blocked from your platform, and can eliminate, or at least dramatically reduce, the edge cases that must have final human determination.

Think you can build it yourself? That’s cute 😇
PRACTICAL EXAMPLES IN CONTENT MODERATION & COMPLIANCE:

Social Images & Videos

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Live Streaming Video

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Trust & Safety Compliance

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Misinformation Monitoring

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Gaming Platforms

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Metaverse

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Messaging App

On-device-icon

Social Images And Video:

Images and video often have many elements ‘burnt’ into the media that require review and moderation. Symbols, text, imagery, nudity, objects and more all need to be detected and immediately blocked or flagged for further human review.

Nudity - social media content moderation

Live-Streaming Video:

Live video streams are particularly complex because any moderation service cannot introduce any delay or lag. VISUA’s computer vision solution is specifically designed to process real-time content at the highest precision.

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Trust & Safety Compliance:

In some cases user submitted media may contravene trust and safety rules or even infringe a content owner’s copyright or trademark. Visual-AI can protect your platform by flagging any and all possible violations, allowing you to take appropriate action. Check out our Copyright & Trademark Protection page for more specific information.

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Misinformation Monitoring:

Dealing with misinformation is a major challenge for all platforms that host user generated content. This is especially true where the image or video may contain inflammatory content that is not exposed in the text. It often requires human judgment to determine context and verify facts, so it can rarely be automated, but the sheer volume of content makes this incredibly difficult. Visual-AI can help to surface problematic content, leaving your trust and safety teams to manually review posts of the highest concern.

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Gaming Platforms:

These platforms can have more stringent requirements due to the user base often being minors or young adults. Some platforms allow chats and visual media to be shared, which requires moderation, but there is also the challenge where some systems allow custom skins to be created and used in-game, which may contain everything from brand information to NSFW and hate speech. Visual-AI can detect and flag all required visual content to flag or block on the system.

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Metaverse:

This new area is predicted to scale rapidly in the next decade. That growth could be hampered if these platforms start to suffer the inevitable content abuse that social platforms struggle with today. As visitors to the metaverse begin to customise their appearance and surroundings, it creates the opportunity for inappropriate content to be exposed on the platform. Any metaverse-based platform will need to have an embedded Visual-AI technology to aid in the moderation of the virtual environment.

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Messaging Apps:

Many messaging systems’ mission is to provide secure communication and preserve freedom of speech. In other cases, messaging systems used by specific groups, such as business users and minors, will focus on the appropriateness of content. Whatever the system, there are content policies that must be enforced, which is difficult when it comes to images and video. Visual-AI can process all visual-media in real-time, to either flag it to the recipient (or moderators), or inform the sender that it may be inappropriate and request manual review. 

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“VISUA’s technology has been critical in allowing us to protect ourselves from sellers infringing on brand copyright or trademarks. The speed and accuracy of VISUA’s Visual-AI and the ease of implementation of their API has been outstanding. We can now truly say that our marketplace protects brands from counterfeit products and IP infringements thanks to VISUA.”

Jared Hunsaker

VP of Operations
Gearlaunch

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