Files
talk/docs/_docs/product-guide-toxic-comments.md
T

55 lines
3.0 KiB
Markdown
Raw Blame History

This file contains ambiguous Unicode characters
This file contains Unicode characters that might be confused with other characters. If you think that this is intentional, you can safely ignore this warning. Use the Escape button to reveal them.
---
title: Toxic Comments
permalink: /toxic-comments/
class: product-guide
---
Leveraging Google's Perspective API, you can now set a Toxicity Threshold for Talk (0.8 or 80% is the default), which works like this:
- If a comment exceeds the threshold, the commenter is warned that their comment may be toxic, and are given the chance to modify their comment before posting
- If the revised comment is below the Toxicity Threshold, it is posted and displayed normally
- If the revised comment still exceeds the Toxicity Threshold, it is not displayed on the stream and instead is sent to the Reported queue for moderation
- If the moderator accepts the comment, it's displayed on the stream; if it's rejected, it will not be displayed
- Moderators see a Toxic Probability Score on toxic comments in the Moderation queues
Read more about Corals take on toxicity [on our blog](https://blog.coralproject.net/toxic-avenging/).
### What is the Perspective API?
The likely toxicity of a comment is evaluated using scores generated from [Perspective API](http://perspectiveapi.com/). This is part of the [Conversation AI](https://conversationai.github.io/) research effort run by Jigsaw (a section of Google that works on global problems around speech and access to information).
Perspective API uses machine learning, based on existing databases of accepted/rejected comments, to guess the probability that a comment is abusive and/or toxic. It is currently English only, but the system is designed to work with multiple languages.
In order to activate our plugin, each news organization applies for an API key from Jigsaw (click “Request API access” on this site.) Sites can also work with Jigsaw to create an individualized data set specifically trained on their own comment history.
Perspective API was released earlier this year, and is currently in alpha (meaning that it is being continually refined and improved.) Jigsaw should certainly be praised for devoting serious resources to this issue, and making their work available for others, including us, to use.
Weve talked with their team on several occasions, and have been impressed by their dedication and commitment to this issue. These are smart people who are trying to improve a broken part of the internet.
### How do I add the Toxic Comments plugin to my Talk?
You can turn on this plugin by including talk-plugin-toxic-comments (as well as talk-plugin-flag-details, see above) in your plugins.json
Environment variables for configuration:
- `TALK_PERSPECTIVE_API_KEY` (required)
- `TALK_TOXICITY_THRESHOLD` (optional, default 0.8)
- `TALK_PERSPECTIVE_API_ENDPOINT` (optional, default https://commentanalyzer.googleapis.com/v1alpha1)
- `TALK_PERSPECTIVE_TIMEOUT` (optional, default 300)
Note: this is a beta plugin and will see a lot of changes/improvement in the coming weeks)
### Request an API Key
You can read more about Google's Perspective API and/or request an API key here: [http://perspectiveapi.com/](http://perspectiveapi.com/).