Filtering Technology Advanced

Filtering Technology Advanced

Whisper’s advanced technology to reduce the amount “meanness” floating around on its service, otherwise known as “libel,” has a high cost:

The company, based in this city’s Venice neighborhood, says it has built filters to reduce celebrity gossip and everyday name-calling. “We have a huge layer of technology that detects proper names and puts those posts in a different queue for evaluation by 130 full-time human moderators,” Mr. Heyward said. “At least in the short term, these policies have been growth inhibitors for us.”

What a terrible thing this at least passing interest in making people less savage hath wrought: an inhibition of growth, a startup’s only sacred doctrine.