Toxic Speech and Limited Demand for Content Moderation on Social Media

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3764650
AutoresFranziska Pradel (0000-0003-4559-0772, Technical University of Munich, autor correspondente), Jan Zilinsky (0000-0001-7208-8759, Technical University of Munich, autor correspondente), Spyros Kosmidi (0000-0002-9465-0789, University of Oxford, autor correspondente), Spyros Kosmidis, Yannis Theocharis (0000-0001-7209-9669, Technical University of Munich, autor correspondente)
Ano2024
Volume118
Fascículo4
Páginas1895-1912
Data de publicação2024-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAmerican Political Science Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s000305542300134x
OpenAlexW4391172066
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas28
Referências citadas59

When is speech on social media toxic enough to warrant content moderation? Platforms impose limits on what can be posted online, but also rely on users' reports of potentially harmful content. Yet we know little about what users consider inadmissible to public discourse and what measures they wish to see implemented. Building on past work, we conceptualize three variants of toxic speech: incivility, intolerance, and violent threats. We present results from two studies with pre-registered randomized experiments (Study 1, $ N=\mathrm{5,130} $; Study 2, $ N=\mathrm{3,734} $) to examine how these variants causally affect users' content moderation preferences. We find that while both the severity of toxicity and the target of the attack matter, the demand for content moderation of toxic speech is limited. We discuss implications for the study of toxicity and content moderation as an emerging area of research in political science with critical implications for platforms, policymakers, and democracy more broadly

Affect (linguistics · Business · Content (measure theory · Democracy · Incivility · Internet privacy · Moderation · Political science · Politics · Social media · Warrant · Communication · Computer Science · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Law · Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology