FOR ELECTED OFFICIALS & CANDIDATES

Public life, protected

Face Forward gives women and gender diverse elected officials and candidates free, real-time protection from online abuse — so you can stay visible, stay safe, and stay focused on the work that matters.

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Supported by:

What you get

Face Forward participants receive real-time protection and ongoing support for the full two years of the initiative—fully funded, at no cost.

Real-time protection from harmful content

Areto moderates comments on your public social media channels based on your chosen threshold, reducing the amount of harmful content you and your community sees.

A clear view of your supporters

Areto highlights positive engagement — the people backing you, encouraging you, and amplifying your work. During campaigns and in office, this helps you stay connected to the people who matter.

Support from the Face Forward team

Onboarding, guidance, and hands-on help throughout the project. You won't be navigating this alone.

A role in shaping global solutions

Your experience contributes to research that will influence policy, platform standards, and long-term practical protections for public leaders worldwide.

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ELIGIBILITY

Who can join

Face Forward is a non-partisan initiative, fully funded for all participants. There is no cost to join.

Who is eligible

  • Women and non-binary people

  • Current election officials

  • Candidates for upcoming elections

  • At any level of government

Where Face Forward operates

  • Aotearoa New Zealand

  • Australia

  • Fiji

  • Tonga

  • Somoa

  • Solomon Islands

HOW IT WORKS

What to expect

Register

Fill out the registration form to confirm your interest and eligibility. It only takes a couple of minutes.

1

Receive your welcome email

You’ll get a confirmation email from Face Forward with everything you need to get started.

2

Create your Areto account

Set up your Areto account - this is where you’ll manage your protection settings and access more resources.

3

Go live

Connect your social media accounts and activate your protection. The Face Forward team will guide you through.

4

Sign up to participate

Not sure? Get in touch

THE PLATFORM

How Areto works

Areto combines AI with human oversight, giving you control to set community thresholds and define what’s acceptable online across your public social media. It supports responsible, transparent moderation that aligns with your community standards, helping you uphold public safety and maintain trust in your digital spaces.

We built Areto in one of the world’s top machine-learning labs to filter the noise and protect the people and work behind the world’s most important places, people and brands – so you can focus on what you came here to do: build a stronger, better community.

Areto’s first priority is to get online harm under control, creating safer social channels for your followers and less clean-up work for your team. Then, our advanced sentiment analysis, return on engagement data analytics and visualizations, and Fan Finder, will help you identify your most engaged supporters, track audience moods and trends, and turn insights into real engagement, stronger connections, and tangible impact.

    • Hide hate speech and abuse

    • Delete spam and bot traffic

    • Mute problematic accounts

    • Increase engagement

    • Identify superfans

    • See advanced sentiment trends

    • Understand platform and account trends and content performance

    • Track moderation performance

    • Build and share customized reports

Learn more

FAQS

Common questions

About Face Forward

  • Face Forward is open to women and non-binary people who are currently elected officials or candidates for office at any level of government across Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and the Solomon Islands. Participation is fully funded — there is no cost to join.

  • Once you register, you'll create an Areto account and connect your public social media channels. The Face Forward team will guide you through setup and be available throughout the programme. You'll also be asked to contribute to the research component — sharing your experience through anonymous surveys to help build better protections for leaders everywhere.

  • Face Forward is a two-year applied research initiative. Participants are supported for the full duration, with ongoing access to protection tools, the Face Forward team, and GIWL researchers.

  • Face Forward is a research initiative and your experience will contribute to anonymised findings. Your personal data is handled in accordance with applicable privacy laws. The Face Forward team can answer any specific questions about how your information is used.

  • Face Forward is a non-partisan, region-wide collaboration led by Areto and the Global Institute for Women's Leadership (GIWL) at the Australian National University, delivered with the support of ministries, local councils, political parties, and public institutions committed to safer democratic participation.

About Areto Software

    • Hides abusive comments

    • Deletes spam

    • Works automatically, 24/7

    • Removes all comment data within 30 days of deactivating Areto

    Abuse definitions

    Threats & Piracy definitions

    • Post content on your behalf

    • Read your DMs

    • Monitor your mentions

    • Scan comments on other people’s posts

    • Ask for or store your passwords

  • Areto works on public Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube accounts.

    Request other platforms

  • Yes, we do.

    Responsible AI policy

Ready to join?

Registration is free and open to eligible women and non-binary people in public life across the region.

sign up - it's free

Not sure? Get in touch