Safebear Uses Cloud and Blockchain to Combat Cyberbullying with Nuage on AWS

Anti-cyberbullying startup Safebear, working with data specialists and AWS Partner Nuage built a technology platform on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to filter out hateful and abusive messages on social media, online gaming, and dating platforms. To help the startup on the road to success, Nuage worked to limit development and usage costs, with AWS providing free credits to aid development. The project, delivered in under 1 year, uses Amazon SageMaker for artificial intelligence-driven analysis, AWS blockchain services to help compile legal evidence to target cyberbullies, and deploys Know Your Customer (KTC) processes.

France-based startup Safebear is developing an online platform to protect individuals from cyberbullying on social media, gaming, and online dating platforms. The company was founded by father and son team Christian and Jérémy Guillon, both of whom had been victims of cyberbullying. Noting both the continued spread of cyberbullying and the difficulty of legal redress, the pair consulted with victims of cyberbullying, the insurance industry, and people from marketing disciplines to inform the design of their technology solution.

The goal for the platform was to use Know Your Customer (KYC) processes to verify that all data feeds being watched belong to the person signing up, using artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technologies to filter out hateful and abusive messages in near-real-time—and gather evidence about the actions of cyberbullying perpetrators. Because neither of the founders had technology development expertise, and faced with little support from the IT community, the pair turned to AWS to help them develop their project.

AWS invited Safebear to the AWS Summit, introducing both founders to potential AWS Partners that could help them achieve their project aims. The company settled on AWS Partner Nuage because of its knowledge of developing data-driven solutions and experience helping startups set up new cloud-native infrastructures. “We developed a strong rapport from the start—Nuage was instrumental in turning our idea into a reality,” says Jérémy Guillon, co-founder of Safebear. “We were able to tap into their knowledge of AWS services to minimize development and usage costs and help us reach our ambition of serving millions of potential users.”

Safebear was also impressed with the support of AWS, which provided free credits to support project development. “With several tens of thousands of euros in credits, we were able to move forward with our project without having to worry about costs,” says Guillon. “AWS has given us lots of support and is even helping to publish our solution on the AWS Marketplace, even though we are still in development.”

In developing the new platform, Safebear needed to obtain cyberbullying data from social media networks and get access to their API keys. The company also needed to create a French language dictionary—the first of its kind—containing a register of cyberbullying insults and threats. This resulted in a database of over 2.6 million data items built on AWS using Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (Amazon QLDB), which maintains an immutable, cryptographically verifiable log of data changes.

To ensure AI models correctly recognize abusive language, Nuage designed a labeling system to classify its database and ensure the AI models could easily distinguish abusive language from non-abusive language—and determine the level of any cyberbullying incident. For this it uses Amazon SageMaker to build, train, and deploy machine learning (ML) models for any use case. “Labeling was complex and necessary to make the AI models work,” says Louis Amon, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) at Nuage. “Using AWS, we were able to train the AI models to quickly categorize cyberbullying insults and threats.”

Using AWS, Nuage was able to build a cloud infrastructure for Safebear in under a year that’s designed to scale to support the growth of the company. By classifying cyberbullying data, the company is now able to record cyberbullying activities using Blockchain on AWS, to help compile evidence when users wish to take legal action. Safebear has also filed two international patents for its platform.

With Nuage continuing to support the company, it expects to launch the first commercial version of its platform to the public by the end of 2023. “For us, Nuage really embodies agile development,” says Guillon. “They are responsive, proactive, and always available—plus, we can count on them to resolve any issues that arise quickly.”

Safebear is designed for ease of use with a simple graphical interface showing who has been blocked. Once a user’s identity is confirmed, tokens are generated to authenticate any supported platform, such as for gaming or social media. Parents can monitor their children’s online activities while maintaining privacy: parents are only notified if their children are receiving hurtful messages. “Nuage has helped us create a solution that, once configured, requires little intervention,” says Christian Guillon, Safebear’s co-founder. “Parents need the means to see if their children are victims—or even perpetrators of cyberbullying, so they can take action.”

The company has secured support from the French state and from other national bodies in France. These include the Ministry of Digital Transition and the Autorité de Régulation de la Communication Audiovisuelle et Numérique (ARCOM), the regulatory body that governs audiovisual media and digital services. “Strong ethical principles have driven the development of our business—this is backed up by a special agreement with our shareholders,” says Christian Guillon. “We are also proud of our working relationship with the French government helping inform the development of a solution that works to minimize online and social media harassment.”

Built on AWS, Safebear feels confident in the success of its platform. “We are already planning to integrate image and video tracking into the platform next year—and add English, German, Italian, and Spanish language options,” says Christian Guillon. “Nuage has helped us a lot and we know they will continue to be there with us every step of the way.”