Tim Chase’s pleasure is difficult to hide as he sits down with Sky Sports activities’ Dan Lengthy.
The previous tech headhunter is right here to speak about his brainchild, an app known as Striver – the self-proclaimed world’s first abuse-free social media platform, which was publicly launched at Net Summit 2023 in Lisbon again in November.
That in itself is an attractive prospect. The quantity of negativity on the likes of Fb, X (previously generally known as Twitter) and Instagram appears to considerably outweigh the positivity today.
However there is a boyish grin on Chase’s face as he begins to inform Striver’s story – and it is simple to know why.
“When your business partners are Gilberto Silva and Roberto Carlos, magic happens!”
Ex-Arsenal midfielder Gilberto – a buddy of Chase’s since 2016 – is an investor and his fellow 2002 World Cup winner is an envoy.
The app is analogous in look to TikTok – the latest main participant in social media – however the crew behind the scenes are utilizing challenges to attract individuals in.
For instance, say Roberto Carlos recreates that mind-blowing, physics-defying free-kick he scored towards France, uploads it to Striver and invitations customers to report footage of themselves making an attempt to copy it.
He can then click on the ‘Characteristic’ button on any of these replies; the consumer will get a notification to say he is seen it and all of his viewers can then watch it and reply themselves.
Gilberto, in the meantime, may publish a video asking individuals what they consider Arsenal’s probabilities of successful the Premier League this season and have responses in the identical method.
The headline-grabbing function – Striver’s USP – is that abuse is not going to function wherever on the platform, so how does the app again up its declare?
“We feel prevention is better than a cure and we found there was AI (Artificial Intelligence) available to moderate content, which means we don’t even have to remove the abusive content from the platform – we actually stop it going live,” Chase explains.
“With comments, we look at words, phrases, sentences and then the message as a whole. Comments don’t necessarily have to be positive, but they are not abusive.
“Then, for movies, we take away the audio and average that in the identical method we do for feedback after which, for the video, we take a screenshot each 0.3 of a second and average every screenshot.
“A response to Harry Maguire’s challenge from a Man Utd fan outside Old Trafford was rejected recently and we couldn’t work out why. There’s a bottle of wine in the background and on the label, there’s the word ‘diablo’ which means ‘devil’ in Spanish.
“We knew our AI was highly effective – it is at present 99.9817 per cent efficient – however we did not realise how highly effective it’s changing into. Because the founding father of the programme, that actually excited me.”
In future, there will be facial recognition and age-appropriate moderation; if you’re over 18, there will be a slider for users to select the level of bad language that is shown.
It begs the question: why hasn’t anyone done this before?
“Commercially, I understand why the big platforms haven’t done it; they are 20-years-old, in some cases, and this is just the modern way of doing it.
“The emergence of TikTok reveals that folks do need to interact and do the issues you possibly can see the celebrities and influencers doing. However with these platforms, they’re so involved with getting content material on the platform, then worrying concerning the abusive content material afterwards.
“If it goes live, the damage has already been done – there’s no point bringing it down after an hour. Bad news travels fast on social media and it’s really hard to bring it back in.”
Evidently, it has been simple to get present and former professionals concerned.
Alongside Gilberto and Roberto Carlos, Manchester United and England defender Harry Maguire is an envoy, as is one other former Gunner, Sol Campbell.
Papa Pincus – who has over 130,000 followers on Twitter – has lately signed up as an official creator, too.
“It’s been pretty easy to get players on board,” Chase says, taking notable pleasure in his efforts. “We’re talking to clubs and major brands, as well.
“The computer virus is the abuse-free stuff after which we’re in. If we take away the highest layer of abuse, the gamers need to interact extra with the followers, the followers need to interact extra with one another and the golf equipment need to interact with all people.
“My position on this is that every social platform is the same; it’s about how many likes you’ve got, how many followers you’ve got and how many views you get. It’s only the way it displays the content that is different. Ours is just upsetting everything, disrupting.”
Gilberto: At one level, I used to be frightened of leaving my home
As a father himself, Gilberto says Chase’s preliminary goal instantly resonated with him.
“I have the possibility to help put the project on the market and support people to interact with others in a safe place. This is a key point for me,” says the Brazilian.
“Now we are in the position to be able to generate awareness by saying maybe some people have been abused on the internet, but now you have Striver, where you can moderate the conversation and get the support.
“The thought is to not cease individuals speaking. I can have a unique opinion to you about soccer – that is not an issue. The issue begins once you begin abusing others.”
Having played during a time when the use of social media was in its infancy – and thus abuse was not among the headlines as often as it is today – Gilberto used his platform to engage with his followers, communicating results, day-to-day life and more.
For the most part, it was friendly; for the general public, there was still a real sense of novelty in discovering previously inaccessible details.
But even then, he was not immune to the vitriol that has, sadly, become commonplace.
“After I finished my contract, at Atletico Mineiro back in Brazil, I had a problem with my knee. I went to the club and told them I wanted their support, but nothing was done.
“In a while, I took them to courtroom. This was not one thing that made me glad or proud. In all honesty, it was horrible to make this resolution.
“The consequence was there were some reactions from the fans, which were very bad for me.
“There have been a lot of them who got here onto social media and smashed me. At one level, I used to be frightened of going outdoors my home, pondering any individual may await me outdoors or cease me on the road. That was a tricky time.”
That first-hand experience is, without doubt, Gilberto’s driving force. “I believe I am working more durable than after I was taking part in!” he says with a smile.
With these efforts, he desires to supply present gamers a service he would have been grateful for had it been obtainable to him.
“We see a lot of racism when players have had one bad game. Players are humans, too. What if those people did something bad in their jobs and somebody came and did the same to them?
“Individuals make errors. You may’t win each time. Gamers shouldn’t be afraid of people who find themselves simply making an attempt to search for issues.
“Striver is here to give the support to everyone, but make them feel part of this movement as well. We want the world to be a better place for all of us. It’s so special to be able to give something back to football.”
What does Striver’s future appear like?
Chase and Co are nearly to start out their Collection B funding spherical, which is able to allow them to scale.
Plans for the platform’s inevitable progress aren’t going to be restricted to soccer both; there are proposals for diversification into different areas, most notably the music trade, and a willpower to take away pretend information.
There will likely be a component of promoting to the app ultimately, however these plans are within the distance.
“We’re here to gain users and get users using the platform. The financial implications will come later if we want them,” says Chase.
“The most engaged social platform is TikTok, but only around 4.5 per cent of users actually engage; most people just who watch the content. We want to up that level.
“Actually, 65 per cent of our customers interact on the platform as a result of it is free from abuse and there isn’t any likelihood of somebody having a go at you for making an attempt.
“It’s super exciting, I’ve got to be honest. We’ve got people suggesting things to us all the time. Someone said mentioned adding politics – I’m less excited about that!”
It is clear the Striver crew are right here to drive change – however not on the expense of their rivals.
“We’re not trying to tell anyone to stop using TikTok or Facebook and just use us – it would be ridiculous to say that because they do bring good,” Chase provides.
“We’re slotting into a part of social media where there’s a massive gap at the moment.
“Our mantra is that it isn’t about me, it is about us. We do not want one other platform displaying how good our life is – it is about neighborhood and collaboration.”
At a time when on-line abuse in soccer is at as excessive a stage because it has ever been, Striver has arrived to attempt to flip the tide.
Get entangled with Striver by downloading the app from the App Retailer or Play Retailer now!