Ask.fm advisory board to combat bullying and jihadist recruitment

Ask. com, the parent company of social networking site Ask.fm, has announced the formation of a new Safety Advisory Board to help prevent online bullying, and criminal activity such as jihadist recruitment.

Catherine Teitelbaum, Ask.fm’s chief trust and safety officer, says the company has gathered a “dream team of advisors and top thinkers” to assist them in creating a safe environment for online debate.

“The advisory board already has expertise in mental health areas and cyber bulling,” said Ms Teitelbaum, adding that advisors will approach the site “holistically” and from a variety of perspectives.

The Middle East Media Research Institute – a press monitoring organization with offices in the US, England, Germany and Israel – recently included Ask.fm on its list of social media companies used by jihadists to spread extreme Islamic ideology.

Ask.fm allows people to ask questions and leave comments anonymously. Ms Teitelbaum says site moderators are acutely aware of the danger of jihadists using the site for recruitment, particularly following the recent attacks in Paris.

“This is an evolving new area,” she said. “We are actively tuning our product tools to be better at spotting and blocking this stuff.”

Doug Leeds, chief executive of Ask.com, says the new moderation team has introduced a number of changes, including the assessment of unanswered questions on the site, as well as those flagged by users.

He says the team was surprised to discover a large percentage of the site’s bullying came from users posting unpleasant messages to themselves.

“This creates a need for a different type of response, a mental health response.”

Mr Leeds says the new Ask.fm team must work to rebuild the trust of its users. “We’re all parents, we all understand the responsibility we have for the community and take it very seriously.”

Ask.fm’s new safety advisory board includes John Carr, secretary of the UK’s Children’s Charities Coalition on Internet Safety; Anne Collier, who sits on Facebook’s safety advisory board; and Dr Justin Patchin, co-director of the US-based CyberBullying Research Centre.

Dr Brian O’Neill, director of research, enterprise and innovation services at the Dublin Institute of Technology, will also sit on the board. He says Ask.fm must “completely revamp” how it manages content and responds to reports of abuse.

"Ask.fm had a terrible reputation," said Dr O'Neill, referring to the previous ownership of the site in Latvia before it moved to Dublin to join the European headquarters of Ask.com in December.

He hopes the site, which has 180 million unique users per month, half of whom are under 18, will work with educators and internet experts to create an open, informative and safe platform for all users.

“We have to acknowledge that in Internet terms this is such a huge challenge with constantly evolving content. Algorithms have to change and all flags for potential content need to be reviewed.”

Dr O’Neill’s research has found large numbers of children are using social media despite the age restriction of 13.

His Net Children Go Mobile report shows nearly 40 per cent of 11-12 year olds have a social networking profile. It also reveals 13 per cent of 13-14 year olds have been bullied on social networking sites, with a majority of teenage girls reporting online abuse.

Meanwhile, 35 per cent of Irish girls aged 13-16 have encountered some form of harmful content online including hate messages, anorexic or bulimic content, self-harm sites and sites discussing suicide.