Welcome to The Spotlight! We are so excited to shine a little light on the partners who have made the 2022 Equality Summit possible through their generous support. Equal Playing Field is a collective of change-makers from around the world, and it takes everyone from individual volunteers to corporate donors to fight for opportunity, equality, and respect within the world of sport.
NEXT UP: PIXSTORY
Where Integrity Is Your Identity
Words by Founder and CEO, Appu Suresh
What does the phrase “equal playing field” mean to you and your organization?
Sport has a big role in leading the narrative on social change, and Pixstory lies at the heart of these intersections as a social media app where you can express yourself without worrying about hate, misinformation and toxicity.
Pixstory’s commitment to creating a safe space aligns with the movement of sports equity. Our app’s architecture is built to create an equal playing field where competing narratives are encouraged through a mechanism that brings accountability to mainstream views.
Pixstory addresses a critical gap in the current social media ecosystem where multitudes are celebrated and dissenting voices are welcomed by reframing the understanding of expertise.
We are creating an ecosystem of trust where consensus is formed through lived experiences as opposed to a singular authority’s pronouncements. That is, rather than reserving visibility for institutions and public figures who are already established, our platform also highlights stories by emerging athletes who are facing gender inequity on the ground.
What do you wish to bring to the summit and the attendees, and what are you most looking forward to experiencing yourselves?
Today, we’re witnessing an unprecedented level of hate and misinformation amplified by social media architectures that reward engagement over accuracy and there is a toxic online environment. Women and women athletes are often the targets of online toxicity. It took enormous courage and hardship for a generation of women to even be considered as athletes. They had to struggle for what was granted to men at every stage, now they don’t deserve to battle hate. They are already fighting on many fronts.
I think Women athletes have great stories of grit to tell and inspire us to move towards a more equal society. We are a committed ally at Pixstory to provide a safe space and amplifies these powerful voices. We are hopeful that the EPF Summit will create new pathways for carrying forward the movement against hate speech and more equal society that’s become rampant in many sports communities on social media.
What and/or who inspires you most to do the work that you do?
Mahatma Gandhi and his teaching of non-violence and truth is the foundation of Pixstory.
To begin with, since truth – which for Gandhi was equivalent to God – infinitely exceeds the finite grasp of any one human being. No individual should claim that they, and only they, have access to the undiluted truth. Even people whom we disagree with, however strongly, may have grasped certain vital aspects of truth which we have overlooked. Thus, we have to undertake the painful surgery of critically interrogating our own presuppositions, vantage points, and values – this exercise of humility is concurrent with walking a mile in the other person’s shoes and trying to see the world as they see it. Such humility requires the cultivation of nonviolence – namely, to resist the impulse to strike out at those with whom we disagree, and instead generate a form of patient waiting on them to understand their perspectives, idioms, and values.
How do you measure success for your organization? What would a successful summit experience look like?
Pixstory’s measurements of success are determined by our users ability to express their opinions through a mechanism that dissolves echo chambers and reduces polarization. We recognize that the influencer economy is run on short-lasting virality. Creators who value integrity and thoughtful content are being invisibilized. In response, Pixstory has created True Fans – a solidified foundation that outlasts the inevitable transience of virality.
While Pixstory has a zero-tolerance policy towards abusive speech, we also have a commitment to refrain from interfering with opinions. Everybody is entitled to their opinion, but nobody is entitled to their facts. Through a thoughtfully crafted moderation process, our platform empowers athletes, clubs and their True Fans to engage in meaningful conversations despite disagreement.
Every True Fan is a success story, representing the fight against hate in the sports world. We believe that our experiences at the Equality Summit will further inform our True Fan feature as we join hands to end gender inequities on the field.
If you could impart a message of hope to a young woman athlete or entrepreneur who is just starting out, what would that be?
As a platform that centers firsthand lived experiences, we will use this space to impart messages documented on Pixstory by athletes to inspire generations to come.We already have many such stories and we want more. Some of my personal favourites are:
For Polish footballer Paulina Dudek, the gender constructs that traditionally associate the sport with men or boys, meant that there were hardly any girls to play with. These inequities translated into barriers on the field that prevented her from experimenting with different positions in the sport: “I was just a goalkeeper for the moment because they didn't want me to play inside,” Paulina says. Over time, Paulina’s teammates realized that gender didn’t dictate the difference in technical skills, dissolving some of the barriers previously uprooted against the defender. She progressed to join the football team in Gorzów Wielkopolski, and moved 80 kilometers from her hometown at the age of 13, marking the start of her professional career: “I could play football more, but also with the girls, which was important for me,” Paulina says.
Swedish footballer Amanda Ilestedt explains that football isn’t a “one-woman show” — the dynamics of the field call for a player’s openness to listening, and to take commands: "One of the main reasons that I love to play football is, of course, the love for the sport but also doing stuff with other people. You have the same goal and then you train really hard and also have a lot of fun together. And in the end, actually, to achieve that -- it's like the best feeling ever… You learn from the very beginning when you're starting in a team, to be able to cooperate with other people or players,” Amanda says.
The takeaway message is there are no walls that you cannot break!
What piece of advice would you give your younger self?
Athletes have a natural advantage to push social change. It combines passion, conviction, discipline and determination. Today the world is in despair and it demands a new leadership to set right a lot of past mistakes, So be the change .
Which of your organization’s recent achievements gives you a sense of pride and brings a smile to your face?
Pixstory’s commitment to being a safe space has found resonance with many prominent football clubs and athletes in its short journey so far. In March 2022, we marked Women’s History Month with a curated mini-autobiography series celebrating athletes from our partner Paris Saint Germain Féminines, through stories on gender empowerment on the field. We are grateful that the player’s trusted our platform as a safe space to share their experiences, and we hope that this unfolds into an expansive project of firsthand narratives by women athletes across the world. We appreciate our growing resonance with leading voices in the sports community from NBA Lakers star Dwight Howard, to football clubs like Juventus, Arsenal and Paris Saint Germain Féminines, who have all joined our commitment to make social media safer.
Learn More About Pixstory and Download the App Here!
And be sure to meet the team at the Equality Summit and the Thursday Evening Drinks Reception presented by Pixstory.