Remember that drunk tweet you sent out? Probably not. Offensive and inconsiderate social media posts could not only affect your relationship with family and friends, it’s probably going to be the reason your job application ends up feeling the wrath of that delete button.
This is the focus of Clear, a new app designed to target inappropriate social media posts by doing what its name suggests.
Clear is the brainchild of Ethan Czahor, a man who knows exactly what a few careless posts can do to your career. After moving to Hollywood to study improv comedy, using Twitter to “test material,” Czahor decided to change his career path.
“Several years and career changes later, after having success in the startup world and battling Lyme disease, I landed my dream job: CTO of Jeb Bush’s political operations,” Czahor says on Clear’s launching website.
“Unfortunately, my Twitter feed was unearthed, spun completely out of context to make me appear as someone I am certainly not, and I lost my job.”
Czahor was in his new job less than 48 hours, making headlines in the States for losing a high-profile role in such a short amount of time.
Using its own algorithms and assisting elements from the IBM Watson supercomputer, Clear scrolls through a user’s chosen social network accounts in search of keywords and phrases that may be deemed offensive or insensitive. The user is then provided a percentage score to inform them of just how “clear” their accounts are. Posts are highlighted, allowing the user to choose whether or not to delete them.
While the app’s current beta stage only focuses on text posts, Czahor told Mashable that Clear has a photo search feature on the “roadmap.”
