September is Suicide Prevention Month, a time to recognize those affected by suicide and suicidal thoughts, as well as the importance of working together to raise awareness and take preventive steps. A new collaboration with Meta aims to accomplish the latter, teaming up with the Mental Health Alliance to create a signal-sharing program called Thrive.
Thrive should allow participating companies to send each other signals about content focused on self-harm or suicide, thus making the same or similar posts more easily found and fact-checked. Snap and TikTok joined Meta as founding members.
Thrive will initially work through companies providing hashes (codes corresponding to violating content). Each company will only provide information about the image or video and should not include specific information about the users or account. Meta says it will prioritize content that depicts or promotes viral challenges around suicide or self-harm.
Meta announced the news in a statement and shared that it is providing Thrive’s technical infrastructure. The company, which has been far from a shining example in preventing harm on its site, also acknowledged the need for cross-platform collaboration.
Antigone Davis, Vice President of Global Safety at Meta, said, “Unfortunately this content is not limited to any one platform — especially when it comes to viral challenges — and it is imperative that the technology industry works together to help prevent it from spreading.”
Dr. Dan Reidenberg, the director of Thrive, will oversee the program, adding, “The integration of signal sharing, coupled with cross-industry collaboration and moderated by an independent and neutral moderator, represents a major breakthrough in industry collaboration and public safety on the global, public health crisis of suicide and ultimately saves lives.”
According to Meta, the bonus program is open to U.S. adults who have “an existing presence on a third-party social app that you can link to or have already linked during the application process.” Participants must also create a professional account on Instagram and a page on Facebook.
If accepted, creators will be able to earn up to $5,000 over a 90-day period in exchange for “sharing at least 20 Reels on Facebook and 10 Reels on Instagram originally posted in each app during each 30-day bonus period” and “sharing on at least 10 different days during each 30-day bonus period.”
(Meta notes that creators’ individual payouts will be calculated based on “an evaluation of your social presence.”) Creators will also be able to participate in its “Facebook Content Monetization” program, which allows creators to earn money for text and photo posts in addition to video content.