Microsoft has announced that it has acquired Two Hat, a firm that specialises in content moderation. The pair have worked together in previous years and some of their work has resulted in better content moderation on Xbox, Minecraft and MSN. The acquisition is timely given that tech firms are scrambling to find ways to ensure people online remain respectful to one another.
Commenting on today’s news, Dave McCarthy, Corporate Vice President of Xbox Product Services, said:
“Globally, growing amounts of harmful content shared online have increased the need for effective and proactive content moderation. For any online community to thrive, content moderation is a critical investment to ensure positive user experiences and maintain engagement over time. Microsoft and Two Hat share a vision for using advancements in moderation technology to nurture and protect diverse, global online communities.”
Under the arrangement, the two firms will benefit from combined technologies, research capabilities, highly skilled teams and cloud infrastructure. With Two Hat’s greater access to resources, it will now be able to provide even better services for its customer base and Microsoft can make its principal networks, such as Xbox, less toxic for users.
Both companies’ statements focused on how excited they were to be coming together but neither provided any information about how much Two Hat was bought for.