Key facts
- Areto AI tool filters abusive comments from Australian MPs' social media.
- Nearly half of all comments to politicians' posts are classified as abusive.
- Gender-based abuse, racism, and transphobia are common categories of abuse.
- The tool differentiates abusive content from genuine political criticism.
- High-profile accounts receive a greater volume of abusive comments.
An AI-powered application named Areto is being utilized by Australian Members of Parliament (MPs) to filter abusive content from their social media accounts. Jacqueline Comer, the founder and chief product officer of Areto, stated that nearly half of all comments directed at politicians meet the criteria for abuse. The tool is designed to protect politicians, particularly women, from gendered and personal attacks, while ensuring that genuine political criticism is not filtered out. Data from a trial involving 22 parliamentarians between July and October revealed a significant scale of online hostility, with over 460,000 comments analyzed and approximately 190,000 classified as personal attacks, including threats and violent language.