Indian-origin Pixstory ties up with French club PSG for social media ethics

The startup, backed by NBA eight time all-star and Los Angeles Lakers player Dwight Howard, is also in talks with two major European clubs too for a tie-up to promote their venture

Amid controversies over the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code in the country, an Indian-origin social media platform Pixstory on Friday joined hands with French football club Paris Saint-Germain’s (PSG) women’s team to promote online ethical behaviour.

The startup, backed majorly by NBA eight time all-star and Los Angeles Lakers player Dwight Howard, is also in talks with two major European clubs too for a tie up to promote their venture. The board of directors of Pixstory includes former White House official Peter Watson, former Japanese diplomat Koji Tsuruoka, former Indian telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan, Cody Keenan, who was a key official in Barack Obama’s team, and former Australian diplomat Mike Rann, among others.

With Pixstory, the PSG players will take part in campaigns to fight toxic speech online and to encourage people to curb toxicity and promote decency in online conversations. The partnership is for the next two seasons. At present, the platform has more than 100,000 users and each user is assigned an Integrity Score that increases based on their transparency, evidence-based contributions, and interactions on the platform. The platform allows users to create stories using 12 photographs and 360 words, which can be ‘challenged or supported’ by other users to earn higher integrity scores for factual stories.

“We want Pixstory to drive change on social media. We wanted a social network without any likes/dislikes, where integrity is more important than virality. The user experience on Pixstory is not affected, but we make safety a priority. There is no immediate validation, because in real life you build your reputation over time and every second counts. Pixstory reveals your true personality, which you write yourself,” said Appu Esthose Suresh, the founder of Pixstory.

Pixstory users are allotted badges like Star Users, Topic Experts, Public Figures, based on their Integrity Score and proficiency in a particular subject. “We are delighted to welcome Pixstory into the fold. The club pays close attention to educating young people so that they use social media sensibly. We share Pixstory’s ambition to encourage people to interact in a space where listening and discussion prevail. Through our partnership, we are proud to be able to tackle this issue together,” said Ulrich Ramé, director of Paris Saint-Germain’s women’s team.

According to the company, unlike other social media channels, Pixstory has a three-stage "truth filter" process – including artificial intelligence, design and moderation – to identify and root out hate and disinformation from the platform.

In India, the Centre government had been defending the new Information Technology Rules, 2021 stating that the aim is to prevent misuse of freedom of press by empowering the audience and that the grievance redressal mechanism was in consonance with the spirit of public’s right to know. Though the rule was facing criticism, there were also demands for a standard operating procedure (SOP) for the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code.