Text Moderation Introduction
Introduction
Sightengine's Text Moderation API is useful to moderate any type of text contents: comments, messages, chats, posts and even usernames. Sightengine offers two different approaches to Text Moderation:
- ML text classification based on deep learning, to moderate text based on semantic and in-context meaning.
- Rule-based pattern-matching algorithms, to moderate based on advanced rules and patterns.
Both approaches have their own advantages:
ML Text classification
- understands context
- understands linguistic subtleties
Rule-based pattern-matching
- very low latency
- resistant to obfuscation attempts
- customizable: add custom allow/disallow lists
ML Text classification models
The text classification models return a confidence score for each supported class.
you are such a failure
| Class | Description |
| sexual | detects references to sexual acts, sexual organs or any other content typically associated with sexual activity |
| discriminatory | detects hate speech directed at individuals or groups because of specific characteristics of their identity (origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, etc.) |
| insulting | detects insults undermining the dignity or honor of an individual, signs of disrespect towards someone |
| violent | detects threatening content, i.e. with an intention to harm / hurt, or expressing violence and brutality |
| toxic | detects whether a text is unacceptable, harmful, offensive, disrespectful or unpleasant |
| self-harm | detects whether a text contains mentions or references to self-harm |
Rule-based pattern-matching
The rule-based pattern-matching text moderation returns flagged words and expressions across multiple categories:
I'm diena22. Wanna şėẻ ḿé ᾕấκѐḍ? You should §EnÐ me $50
| Class | Description |
| profanity | insults, discriminatory content, sexual content or other inappropriate words and phrases |
| personal (pii) | email addresses, phone numbers, usernames, IPs, US social security numbers etc. that qualify as personal information |
| link | URLs to external websites and pages. We can flag domains known to host unsafe or unwanted content |
| extremism | words, expressions or slogan related to extremist ideologies, people or events |
| weapon | names or terms that related to guns, rifles and firearms |
| medical | names related to medical drugs |
| drug | names related to recreational drugs |
| self-harm | terms related to suicide and self-inflected injuries |
| violence | expressions of violence such as kicking, punching or harming someone, or threatening to do so |
| spam | expressions commonly associated with spam or with circumvention, i.e. attempts to send or lure the user to another platform |
| content-trade | requests or messages encouraging users to send, exchange or sell photos or videos of themselves |
| money-transaction | requests or messages encouraging users to send money |
| blacklist (custom) | custom list of terms and expressions |