AI filter launched to block Twitter cyberflashing

It seems strange to report, yet a small but determined group of Twitter users think it is a good idea to direct message (DM) pictures of male genitals to complete strangers.

Does this sound a bit like street flashing harassment in digital form?

It did to developer Kelsey Bressler after she received such an unsolicited image as a DM via Twitter last August. She later told the BBC:

You’re not giving them a chance to consent, you are forcing the image on them, and that is never okay.

Instead of shrugging it off, she and a friend had the idea of using AI pattern recognition to screen the pictures out before they were seen. But that AI still needed a set of – ahem – images to train itself on, which Bressler requested via Twitter.