Unveiling sexist narratives: AI approach to flag content on social media

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Unveiling sexist narratives: AI approach to flag content on social media

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  • Rapidly growing access and use of information and communication technologies (ICT), accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has had multiple impacts on gender equality and women’s rights, including the further exacerbation of existing forms of sexism, abuse and violence against women (VAW).

    Social media platforms, especially in X (Previously Twitter), have become powerful conduits for communication in Latin American countries. However, the rise of online sexism and the perpetuation of harmful narratives necessitate proactive measures. To address this concern, the United Nations International Computing Centre in partnership with UN Women developed an artificial intelligence (AI) model designed to automatically detect and flag sexist text content on X across Spanish-speaking nations in Latin America.

    This AI model employs advanced supervised algorithms, carefully chosen and trained on diverse labeled datasets, to identify sexist and abusive language that may contribute to perpetuating harmful stereotypes. Recognizing the linguistic and cultural diversity across Latin American countries, our model incorporates a multilingual approach, considering regional nuances to ensure accurate detection.

    Despite linguistic and cultural challenges, the model demonstrates promising results in detecting and categorizing sexist content. Continuous refinement and ethical considerations remain integral aspects of our approach, emphasizing the importance of balancing content moderation with freedom of expression.

    In conclusion, this AI model offers a valuable tool for addressing online sexism in Latin American countries. The trends and findings of this analysis will inform and contribute to development of a systematic approach of prevention and response to sexism and technology-facilitated VAW (TF VAW), including evidence-based prevention interventions focused on transforming harmful social norms, improved understanding of the issue in the region and creating safe online spaces for women and girls through effective enforcement and consistent standards for content moderation.

    The topic of developing an AI model to automatically flag sexist text content on social media in Latin American countries aligns with several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), primarily focusing on gender equality, peace, justice, and strong institutions.

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