Yes, moderation is going to be harder in end-to-end encrypted spaces. You know what else is going to be harder? Algorithm-driven content amplification. And trust me, one of these things is doing way more damage.
The thing about end-to-end encryption (E2EE) is that it’s absolutely tractable to moderate conversations *if* participants report problems. This voluntary reporting capability is already baked into some systems through “message franking” 1/
So when we say “moderation of E2EE conversations is hard” we’re basically saying “moderation is hard if we’re talking about small(ish) closed groups where not one single participant hits the ‘report abuse’ button.” 2/
But that’s a normal expectation! We don’t expect private companies to actively moderate email threads or group SMS texts or private conversations. And I hope we don’t start expecting that! I don’t want to live in that society! 3/
There are a few potential exceptions to this: mostly involving people who can’t report content by themselves and need assistance, like kids. There’s some room for flexibility here, but I don’t think that’s what these concerns are about. 4/
When people say “encryption will make moderation harder” they’re mostly talking about the spread of disinformation and hate speech. For these to spread widely, they rely on large, open groups — and algorithmic amplification. 5/
Encrypted messaging can scale from small private conversations to large groups with open membership. But obviously these don’t provide the same privacy properties. If anyone can join, then anyone (including the provider) can moderate and report. 6/
And while moderation gets harder in small groups (and easier in large ones) the same features of E2EE will also make it more difficult for providers to *promote* specific content that they can’t see. 7/
This doesn’t mean we’re going to wind up in a perfect, beautiful world. People are terrible. For example, WhatsApp has had terrible problems with disinfo content even without algorithmic promotion. 8/
https://twitter.com/Aissn/status/1452619578173964288
But at the end of the day, taking algorithms’ ability to view all content out of the system is probably a good thing. Making providers’ visibility into something chosen voluntary by participants also isn’t the end of the world. //
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