More Like this

1. (In)visible moderation: A digital ethnography of marginalized users and content moderation on Twitch and Reddit

   https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221109804  

   Thach, Hibby; Mayworm, Samuel; Delmonaco, Daniel; Haimson, Oliver (July 2022, New Media & Society)

   Research suggests that marginalized social media users face disproportionate content moderation and removal. However, when content is removed or accounts suspended, the processes governing content moderation are largely invisible, making assessing content moderation bias difficult. To study this bias, we conducted a digital ethnography of marginalized users on Reddit’s /r/FTM subreddit and Twitch’s “Just Chatting” and “Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches” categories, observing content moderation visibility in real time. We found that on Reddit, a text-based platform, platform tools make content moderation practices invisible to users, but moderators make their practices visible through communication with users. Yet on Twitch, a live chat and streaming platform, content moderation practices are visible in channel live chats, “unban appeal” streams, and “back from my ban” streams. Our ethnography shows how content moderation visibility differs in important ways between social media platforms, harming those who must see offensive content, and at other times, allowing for increased platform accountability. 

   more » « less
2. Understanding Rules in Live Streaming Micro Communities on Twitch

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3452918.3465491  

   Cai, Jie; Guanlao, Cameron; Wohn, Donghee Yvette (June 2021, IMX '21: ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences)

   null (Ed.)

   Rules and norms are critical to community governance. Live streaming communities like Twitch consist of thousands of micro-communities called channels. We conducted two studies to understand the micro-community rules. Study one suggests that Twitch users perceive that both rules transparency and communication frequency matter to channel vibe and frequency of harassment. Study two finds that the most popular channels have no channel or chat rules; among these having rules, rules encouraged by streamers are prominent. We explain why this may happen and how this contributes to community moderation and future research. 

   more » « less
3. Hate Raids on Twitch: Understanding Real-Time Human-Bot Coordinated Attacks in Live Streaming Communities

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3610191  

   Cai, Jie; Chowdhury, Sagnik; Zhou, Hongyang; Wohn, Donghee Yvette (September 2023, Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction)

   Online harassment and content moderation have been well-documented in online communities. However, new contexts and systems always bring new ways of harassment and need new moderation mechanisms. This study focuses on hate raids, a form of group attack in real-time in live streaming communities. Through a qualitative analysis of hate raids discussion in the Twitch subreddit (r/Twitch), we found that (1) hate raids as a human-bot coordinated group attack leverages the live stream system to attack marginalized streamers and other potential groups with(out) breaking the rules, (2) marginalized streamers suffer compound harms with insufficient support from the platform, (3) moderation strategies are overwhelmingly technical, but streamers still struggle to balance moderation and participation considering their marginalization status and needs. We use affordances as a lens to explain how hate raids happens in live streaming systems and propose moderation-by-design as a lens when developing new features or systems to mitigate the potential abuse of such designs. 

   more » « less
4. Moderation Visibility: Mapping the Strategies of Volunteer Moderators in Live Streaming Micro Communities

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3452918.3458796  

   Cai, Jie; Wohn, Donghee Yvette; Almoqbel, Mashael (June 2021, IMX '21: ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences)

   null (Ed.)

   Volunteer moderators actively engage in online content management, such as removing toxic content and sanctioning anti-normative behaviors in user-governed communities. The synchronicity and ephemerality of live-streaming communities pose unique moderation challenges. Based on interviews with 21 volunteer moderators on Twitch, we mapped out 13 moderation strategies and presented them in relation to the bad act, enabling us to categorize from proactive and reactive perspectives and identify communicative and technical interventions. We found that the act of moderation involves highly visible and performative activities in the chat and invisible activities involving coordination and sanction. The juxtaposition of real-time individual decision-making with collaborative discussions and the dual nature of visible and invisible activities of moderators provide a unique lens into a role that relies heavily on both the social and technical. We also discuss how the affordances of live-streaming contribute to these unique activities. 

   more » « less
5. After Violation But Before Sanction: Understanding Volunteer Moderators' Profiling Processes Toward Violators in Live Streaming Communities

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3479554  

   Cai, Jie; Wohn, Donghee Yvette (October 2021, Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction)

   Content moderation is an essential part of online community health and governance. While much of extant research is centered on what happens to the content, moderation also involves the management of violators. This study focuses on how moderators (mods) make decisions about their actions after the violation takes place but before the sanction by examining how they "profile" the violators. Through observations and interviews with volunteer mods on Twitch, we found that mods engage in a complex process of collaborative evidence collection and profile violators into different categories to decide the type and extent of punishment. Mods consider violators' characteristics as well as behavioral history and violation context before taking moderation action. The main purpose of the profiling was to avoid excessive punishment and aim to integrate violators more into the community. We discuss the contributions of profiling to moderation practice and suggest design mechanisms to facilitate mods' profiling processes. 

   more » « less