Checkstep

High-Level Overview

Checkstep is a London-based technology company founded in 2020 that builds an AI-powered Trust & Safety platform for content moderation.[1][2][3] Its core product scans and moderates user-generated content across text, images, videos, audio, GIFs, and livestreams in over 100 languages, helping online platforms detect harmful material, enforce policies, and ensure regulatory compliance like the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) and UK Online Safety Act.[1][2][3][4] Checkstep serves high-volume UGC platforms in industries including marketplaces, gaming, streaming, dating, social media, and review sites, with customers like Trustpilot, Instant Gaming, Streamable, and 123 Multimedia, where it enabled 90% automated moderation and drove a 2.3x subscription increase.[2][3]

The platform solves the scalability challenges of manual moderation by offering end-to-end tools: AI-driven scanning via a marketplace of top models, automated enforcement workflows, policy management, appeals, analytics, and white-label transparency reporting.[1][2][3] This allows platforms to protect users, optimize moderator efficiency, and adapt to evolving risks and regulations at scale.[2][3]

Origin Story

Checkstep emerged in 2020 amid rising demands for scalable content moderation as user-generated content exploded on social platforms, gaming sites, and marketplaces, compounded by new global regulations like the DSA.[1][2][3] Founded in London, UK, the company quickly built a fully hosted AI platform to automate moderation, drawing on advances in multimodal AI for text, images, video, and audio.[1][5] Early traction came from integrating with AWS Marketplace and serving diverse clients, including a pivotal case with 123 Multimedia that demonstrated 10,000x faster profile validation and operational streamlining.[2][3] This validated Checkstep's approach, positioning it as a go-to for platforms transitioning from human-heavy to AI-orchestrated workflows.[3]

Core Differentiators

Checkstep stands out in the crowded content moderation space through its comprehensive, customizable platform. Key strengths include:

• Multimodal AI Orchestration: Scans all content formats (text, images, video, audio, GIFs, livestreams) in 100+ languages using a flexible AI marketplace for seamless model testing and swapping, outperforming single-model competitors.[1][2][3][4]
• End-to-End Workflow Automation: Combines scanning, enforcement (automation or human-in-loop with moderator wellbeing focus), policy adaptation, appeals, audit logs, and analytics into one system, reducing reliance on fragmented tools.[1][2][3]
• Regulatory-First Compliance: Built-in DSA and Online Safety Act tools like automated notice/action, transparency portals, and risk management, simplifying global adherence without custom builds.[2][3][4]
• Ease of Integration and Scalability: API/edge deployment, third-party integrations, customizable roles/permissions, and high-volume handling for UGC-heavy platforms, as proven by clients like Trustpilot.[2][3]

These features enable 90%+ automation rates, cost savings, and faster operations compared to rivals like Unitary, which focuses narrower on visual moderation.[1][3]

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Checkstep rides the wave of exploding user-generated content growth—fueled by social media, gaming, and marketplaces—amid intensifying regulatory scrutiny from DSA, Online Safety Act, and similar laws demanding proactive harm prevention.[2][3] Timing is ideal: AI multimodal models have matured to handle diverse formats accurately, while platforms face moderator shortages and rising abuse (e.g., hate speech, CSAM, misinformation).[1][4] Market forces like UGC scale (billions of posts daily) and fines for non-compliance (up to 6% of revenue under DSA) favor scalable AI solutions over labor-intensive alternatives.[2]

Checkstep influences the ecosystem by empowering safer digital spaces, enabling platforms to grow subscriptions (e.g., 2.3x for 123 Multimedia) and innovate freely, while contributing to industry standards via compliance tools and AI explainability.[3] It accelerates the shift to AI-native Trust & Safety, reducing human burnout and setting benchmarks for policy agility in a fragmented market.[1][2]

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Checkstep is poised for rapid expansion as AI moderation becomes table stakes for compliant, high-scale platforms, with potential to capture share in emerging verticals like blockchain and iGaming.[3][4] Next steps likely include deeper AI advancements (e.g., real-time livestream enhancements), global regulatory expansions, and partnerships amplifying its AWS presence.[2] Trends like federated learning for privacy, zero-trust compliance, and generative AI abuse detection will shape its trajectory, evolving Checkstep from moderator to full platform health OS.

Tying back to its core strength, Checkstep exemplifies how AI turns content chaos into trusted, scalable safety—positioning it as essential infrastructure for the next era of online platforms.[1][3]