Crisp blog

Given the 24/7 nature of social media, harmful content can occur at any time and escalate quickly. Hate speech, spam, and activist-led influence operations continue to surge across major social media platforms, meanwhile the virality factor inherent in the digital ecosystem necessitates that social media teams are quick to respond to issues before they escalate into a PR firestorm.

Crisp analyzed over 84,000 posts directed at the verified social media accounts of four first-team players from the England Women’s National Football team: Millie Bright, Jess Carter, Lauren James, and Niamh Charles between July 20 and August 20, 2023. Our investigation revealed a steady stream of harmful content targeting the players throughout the World Cup highlighting the continuing risks to player well-being and mental health posed by the spread of online abuse.

This week, OECD, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, released a vital report that benchmarks the child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) policies and practices of the top-50 online content-sharing services across the internet. The results underscore significant and ongoing issues facing these services, the strides many companies have made and the opportunity for growth for others. 

As part of Crisp's work as a responsible stakeholder in the online trust and safety community, Adam Hildreth, our Founder and Australia’s e-safety commissioner Julie Inman-Grant acted as co-chairs of one of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Coalition of Digital Safety work stream constituted of senior representatives from industry, governments, civil society and academia to compile the Online Harms Typology. This typology will serve as a foundation for facilitating multi stakeholder discussions and cross-jurisdictional dialogues building upon a common terminology and shared understanding of online safety.

A tidal wave of spam across popular social networks is threatening to submerge corporate brand communications and leave consumers adrift in an ocean of inauthenticity.

Social media is undergoing rapid change and it has put brand reputations at risk. This uncertainty didn’t develop overnight — although it’s been exacerbated by recent Trust & Safety team layoffs and chaos in the industry. The tension has been building for years and consumers are taking notice. Our latest “Brands at Risk” consumer study explores why brand communities are the new battleground for reputation.

The fashion industry is rarely immune to public criticism or controversy. However, our new report “Reputation Malfunction: How digital chatter puts fashion brands at risk” reveals a rise in digital chatter from activists is increasingly going undetected by fashion and luxury companies.

Pharmaceutical companies know the bottom-line effects of a wide range of corporate risks. The last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and the race to develop vaccines upended all normalcy in risk management for pharma communicators. Health topics dominated online and offline conversations on a global basis and medical misinformation was rampant and uncontrolled. This digital chatter ushered in a new, disruptive normal as our Communications Leaders Risk Survey: Pharma Edition reveals. These pharma communications professionals are stepping up to the challenge, however, and seeking risk intelligence solutions to protect their global enterprises and proactively mine digital chatter to identify an issue before it escalates into a full-blown crisis.

The metaverse was top of mind at South by Southwest last week. Billions of dollars are pouring into this new virtual digital world, but that investment isn’t necessarily ensuring user safety. Thus, online safety in the metaverse is an enormous concern.

February 2022 marks the 19th annual Safer Internet Day, but this year feels different. 

While the term “hijacking” is a somewhat provocative way to describe what’s happening to corporate ESG initiatives, the reaction from attendees at the RIMS ESG/ERM conference confirmed the growing urgency of this issue. Fueled by actors and groups online, social media has turned companies’ ESG agendas into a matter of public discourse that can alter the speed and direction of these initiatives.

When a brand crisis hits, time is not on your side. As our Corporate Leaders Risk Survey reveals, CEOs know all too well the high price of identifying and responding to a risk too late. They also recognize the role that digital chatter plays in accelerating risks. When the race is on to prevent a brand crisis, it’s better to be the hare than the tortoise.