Thread by @emvdn

It's about to be an extremely thoughtful session at #aoir2019 with Content Moderation and the Power of Platforms @TarletonG

@TarletonG .@TarletonG would like to invite more people to the table when it comes to studying content moderation. Conversations about content moderation need to be opened up. This is not just about Facebook. #aoir2019

@TarletonG There have been proposals, regulatory ideas, things that may or may not pass, that are reacting to this explosion of concern @TarletonG #aoir2019

@TarletonG All platforms that host content they didn't make themselves, from games to comments on news articles, have approaches to content moderation. Moderation is an element that opens up concerns relevant to the whole of internet studies @TarletonG #aoir2019

@TarletonG Content moderation is a part of the story, but not the whole story. Let's expand our understanding of what it is and how it works @TarletonG #aoir2019

@TarletonG Studying content moderation in terms of big and newsworthy issues was where @ysabelgerrard began with the topic, but soon wanted to broaden out her focus. She got a grant to study secret-telling apps, she suspects because they're understudied #aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard Teenagers in particular are fascinated by anonymous secret-telling apps. Sarahah started as an HR feedback app, but when teenagers began using it, shit hit the fan - bullying accusations flowed @ysabelgerrard #aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard .@ysabelgerrard thinks moderation has failed when it comes to secret-telling apps. There's a pattern to their development: they soar in popularity, then quickly are overrun with bullying and are shut down #aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard .@ysabelgerrard has two provocations:

1. If moderation keeps failing these apps and yet they're so integral to teenage life, what can be done?

2. Should there be a difference in expectations of conduct between secret-telling apps and more public-facing apps?

#aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard .@andairamf: On WhatsApp, automated scanning promises to help with moderation - especially when it comes to child pornography. Design changes include being able to forward 20 messages at once to just five #aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard @andairamf Controversial Spanish influencer Reina del Brillo can be rude on Instagram stories, and the context changes when fans save that ephemeral content and post it to YouTube. This is a way of bypassing content policies @andairamf #aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard @andairamf .@andairamf's provocations:

1. How can we study moderation processes that occur in platforms like WhatsApp? Should WhatsApp do more?

2. Can certain social media practices (ie. archiving on YouTube) help us understand ephemeral content that bypasses platform policies?

#aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard @andairamf .@Elinor_Carmi wants to start telling different stories by taking on feminist approaches to address content moderation #aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard @andairamf @Elinor_Carmi Sometimes the moderators doing day-to-day work on care and maintenance are the main people that make media and communication happen, instead of just the well-known "innovators" @Elinor_Carmi #aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard @andairamf @Elinor_Carmi Are politics steering the tech or is tech steering the political possibilities? It's important not to be too technologically deterministic. A platform is an assemblage of institutions and practices and affordances: @aram #aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard @andairamf @Elinor_Carmi @aram We can't have "either/or", we have to have "all/and". Studies of individual platforms are important. There's also value in connecting the dots among these platforms and understanding them at a macro level: @ubiquity75 #aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard @andairamf @Elinor_Carmi @aram @ubiquity75 When did we decide "content" became a bucket that we put all of human expression in? Where did that term come from?: @ubiquity75

"If anyone wants to raise questions about this... provide your content" says @TarletonG #aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard @andairamf @Elinor_Carmi @aram @ubiquity75 .@aram: Prior to 2016, as an American, I would not have thought that there were so many Nazis in the world. I was more in favour of neutral platforms back then! If you asked me right now whether Twitter should deplatform Donald Trump, I don't have the answer #aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard @andairamf @Elinor_Carmi @aram @ubiquity75 .@nicsuzor proposes we begin from shared social goals, like, we don't want harassment online, and work back from there to try to make it happen. @ysabelgerrard says looking at goals like this reveals how imperfect content moderation is #aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard @andairamf @Elinor_Carmi @aram @ubiquity75 @nicsuzor If platforms were designed differently, if we could amplify what happens in the backend, maybe we could understand them better. There are politics and power relations baked into these interface designs. There could be different designs of the internet. @Elinor_Carmi #aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard @andairamf @Elinor_Carmi @aram @ubiquity75 @nicsuzor .@venessapaech says she comes from tech development, where online community management is made up of teams of people - embodied human algorithms - who express social goals through decisions around how to steer conviviality and social health #aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard @andairamf @Elinor_Carmi @aram @ubiquity75 @nicsuzor @venessapaech .@luke_stark: Computer scientists are trying to find ways to diagnose schizophrenia through audio clips. This involves people listening to all sorts of audio material to tease out whether someone is mentally unwell. Isn't that a kind of "content moderation"? #aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard @andairamf @Elinor_Carmi @aram @ubiquity75 @nicsuzor @venessapaech @luke_stark .@luke_stark: The intersections of biopolitical medicalisations and social control raises alarming issues

@TarletonG: Of course there's an interest in automated ways to find out whether someone is engaging in white nationalism, harassment, and gun violence #aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard @andairamf @Elinor_Carmi @aram @ubiquity75 @nicsuzor @venessapaech @luke_stark .TarletonG: What might platforms be able to anticipate about your condition or state using your content? #aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard @andairamf @Elinor_Carmi @aram @ubiquity75 @nicsuzor @venessapaech @luke_stark Jessa Lingel: It's easy to romanticise communities, and if we understand that scale is an issue on platforms like Twitter, it seems like smaller communities have the answers. But those platforms and communities have problems too #aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard @andairamf @Elinor_Carmi @aram @ubiquity75 @nicsuzor @venessapaech @luke_stark .@aram: The language of platforms might be a screen to obfuscate the real issue, which is the privatisation of citizenship and democracy #aoir2019

@TarletonG @ysabelgerrard @andairamf @Elinor_Carmi @aram @ubiquity75 @nicsuzor @venessapaech @luke_stark We are really looking at the power of platforms to construct culture. Digital culture can't be divorced from human culture more generally. We're all interested in social goals - but how we establish these kinds of norms leads us to studying platform governance @paufder #aoir2019