Related papers: Big Tech's Tightening Grip on Internet Speech
We investigate the impact of free speech and the relaxation of moderation on online social media platforms using Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter as a case study. By curating a dataset of over 10 million tweets, our study employs a novel…
Online discourse takes place in corporate-controlled spaces thought by users to be public realms. These platforms in name enable free speech but in practice implement varying degrees of censorship either by government edict or by uneven and…
Moderating user-generated content on online platforms is crucial for balancing user safety and freedom of speech. Particularly in the United States, platforms are not subject to legal constraints prescribing permissible content. Each…
Recently, social media platforms are heavily moderated to prevent the spread of online hate speech, which is usually fertile in toxic words and is directed toward an individual or a community. Owing to such heavy moderation, newer and more…
This Article examines the constitutional status of AI-mediated communication under the First Amendment. Social media platforms, increasingly integrated with generative AI systems, now function as core public communication infrastructures.…
This study examines social media users' preferences for the use of platform-wide moderation in comparison to user-controlled, personalized moderation tools to regulate three categories of norm-violating content - hate speech, sexually…
The internet's key points of global control lie in the hands of a few people, primarily private organizations based in the United States. These control points, as they exist today, raise structural risks to the global internet's long-term…
Unlike the more observable phenomenon of group opinion reinforcement, self-censorship online has received comparatively less attention. Our goal in this work is to dissect the phenomena of self-censorship and to examine the implications of…
This study examines the failures and possibilities of contemporary social media governance through the lived experiences of various content moderation professionals. Drawing on participatory design workshops with 33 practitioners in both…
Many people expect the Internet to change American politics, most likely in the direction of increasing direct citizen participation and forcing government officials to respond more quickly to voter concerns. A recent California initiative…
The proliferation of harmful content shared online poses a threat to online information integrity and the integrity of discussion across platforms. Despite various moderation interventions adopted by social media platforms, researchers and…
We study the impact of content moderation policies in online communities. In our theoretical model, a platform chooses a content moderation policy and individuals choose whether or not to participate in the community according to the…
Online community moderators are on the front lines of combating problems like hate speech and harassment, but new modes of interaction can introduce unexpected challenges. In this paper, we consider moderation practices and challenges in…
The decentralized architecture of Internet sparkled techno-utopian visions of a virtual freedom space for humanity. Peer-to-peer systems, collaborative creation (wikipedia), open source software (Linux), universal shared knowledge, and the…
Social media platforms connect billions, but their business models often amplify societal harm through misinformation, which is linked to polarization, violence, and declining mental health. Current governance frameworks, such as the U.S.…
In recent years, several free-speech social media platforms (so-called "alt-techs") have emerged, such as Parler, Gab, and Telegram. These platforms market themselves as alternatives to mainstream social media and proclaim "free-speech" due…
The rise in popularity of Twitter has led to a debate on its impact on public opinions. The optimists foresee an increase in online participation and democratization due to social media's personal and interactive nature. Cyber-pessimists,…
Since the proliferation of social media usage, hate speech has become a major crisis. Hateful content can spread quickly and create an environment of distress and hostility. Further, what can be considered hateful is contextual and varies…
Online platforms are seeing increasing amounts of AI-generated content -- text and other forms of media that are made or co-created with generative AI. This trend suggests platforms may need to establish governance frameworks, including…
This paper examines how social media algorithms and filter bubbles contribute to the fragmentation of online discourse, fostering ideological divides and undermining shared understanding. Drawing on Michael Sandels philosophical emphasis on…