Zoekresultaten

Who Can Say What? Testing the Impact of Interpersonal Mechanisms and Gender on Fairness Evaluations of Content Moderation

Content moderation is commonly used by social media platforms to curb the spread of hateful content. Yet, little is known about how users perceive this practice and which factors may influence their perceptions. Publicly denouncing content moderation—for example, portraying it as a limitation to free speech or as a form of political targeting—may play an important role in this context. Evaluations of moderation may also depend on interpersonal mechanisms triggered by perceived user characteristics. In this study, we disentangle these different factors by examining how the gender, perceived similarity, and social influence of a user publicly complaining about a content-removal decision influence evaluations of moderation. In an experiment (n = 1,586) conducted in the United States, the Netherlands, and Portugal, participants witnessed the moderation of a hateful post, followed by a publicly posted complaint about moderation by the affected user. Evaluations of the fairness, legitimacy, and bias of the moderation decision were measured, as well as perceived similarity and social influence as mediators. The results indicate that arguments about freedom of speech significantly lower the perceived fairness of content moderation. Factors such as social influence of the moderated user impacted outcomes differently depending on the moderated user’s gender. We discuss implications of these findings for content-moderation practices.

El efecto búmeran y los discursos de odio en los comentarios en prensa

Este artículo busca señales de discursos de odio aparecidos en comentarios sobre el procés y el independentismo catalán publicados en las noticias en prensa sobre Lionel Messi en Madrid y en Barcelona (Abc, La Vanguardia, Mundo Deportivo, Marca, El mundo y As) en el periodo 2019-2021. Partiendo de 2.639 noticias con Messi en el titular, se usaron métodos cuantitativos para identificar los hilos con comentarios políticos para estudiarlos después a través de análisis cualitativo del discurso. Los resultados reflejan que en Madrid se usan noticias y comentarios sobre Messi para hablar del procés y del independentismo, mientras que en Barcelona (tanto medios como comentaristas) no relacionan al jugador con la política. Dos periódicos de Barcelona (La Vanguardia, Mundo Deportivo) y dos de Madrid (Marca y El mundo) reúnen los 12 hilos con más comentarios políticos en ambas ciudades: 487, en total. Su análisis revela que la prensa deportiva concita opiniones más diversas que la generalista y, por tanto, recoge más conflicto y más presencia de discursos de odio por ideología política. Los primeros mensajes (1-25) en los hilos de comentarios aparecen un 77% de las veces como los más seguidos y, por lo tanto, los usuarios que escriben primero influyen más. Esta investigación concluye que los discursos de odio se detectan más en estructuras y argumentaciones que en palabras concretas, pero su existencia no tiene por qué ser negativa y puede derivar en un efecto búmeran contra el propio mensaje de odio si aparece derrotado en la dinámica de intervenciones.This paper examines hate speech traces within comments about the Catalan independentist procés embedded in news published about Lionel Messi in Madrid’s and Barcelona’s online newspapers (Abc, La Vanguardia, Mundo Deportivo, Marca, El mundo, As) during the period 2019-2021. Starting from 2,639 news with Messi in the title, quantitative techniques were applied to identify those with the highest volume of political terms, and their comments’ threads were later studied in depth by means of qualitative discourse analysis. The results show that in Madrid news and comments about Messi are leveraged to discuss the procés, while in Barcelona both press and commenters refrain from tying politics to the footballer. Two newspapers from Barcelona (La Vanguardia, Mundo Deportivo) and two from Madrid (Marca, El mundo) gather the 12 threads with the highest prevalence of political comments: 487 in total. Their analysis reveals that opinions in sports newspapers are more diverse than in the general press and, consequently, show more conflict and more hate messages linked to opposing political views. The few first (1-25) of the threads’ comments turn out to be the most followed 77% of the times, making the users who comment first become more influential than the latecomers. This research concludes that hate speech appears more in structures and argumentations than in specific words, but their presence isn’t necessarily negative and can create a boomerang effect against the hate message if this becomes defeated during the subsequent online dispute.

Online Intimacy-The Digital Designed Self

Developmental needs of adolescents in the online lifeworld in the context of youth work

The online lifeworld gives adolescents various opportunities to meet their developmental needs. Not all young people benefit from these opportunities. They encounter negative experiences, have difficulties fulfilling their needs and engage in risky and harmful behaviours in the online lifeworld. This poses challenges for Dutch youth work professionals, as little is known about the digital lives of Dutch adolescents and the challenges they encounter when meeting their developmental needs in the online lifeworld. In this qualitative study, a photovoice method was used to collect screenshots from adolescents (N = 175) concerning their experiences and needs in the online lifeworld. Six types of developmental needs in the online lifeworld were distinguished. The article concludes that understanding how adolescents use online affordances to fulfil their developmental needs is a starting point for all youth work professionals in providing adequate support to adolescents in the online lifeworld.

New moral dilemmas in online journalism

In this article, the main question is whether and, if so, to what extent online journalism raises new moral issues and, if any, what kind of answers are preferable. Or do questions merely appear new, since they are really old ones in an electronic wrapping, old wine in new bottles? And how does journalism deal with the moral aspects of online journalism? The phenomenon of the Internet emerged in our society a few years ago. Since then, a large number of Dutch people have gone online, and the World Wide Web is now an integral part of our range of means of communication. Dutch journalism is online too, although certainly not in the lead. More and more journalists use the Internet as a source, especially for background information. Newspapers have their web sites, where the online version of the printed paper can be read. And that is it for the time being. There are no more far-reaching developments at present, certainly not on a large scale. Real online journalism is rather scarce in the Netherlands. The debate concerning the moral aspects of online journalism is mainly being conducted in the United States. First of all, by way of introduction, I will present an outline of online journalism. The first instance is the online version of the newspaper. Here, only to a certain degree new issues come up for discussion, since the reputation of reliability and accuracy of the papers, in spite of all criticism, also applies to their online versions. Besides, especially in the United States and increasingly in European countries as well, there is the so-called dotcom journalism, the e-zines, the online news sites without any relationship with printed newspapers. This may be the reason why these sites do not have a strong commitment to moral standards, at least as they have developed in the journalistic culture of the newspapers. After having outlined the moral issues arising in online journalism, the question will be addressed whether and, if so, to what extent it is meaningful and desirable to develop instruments of self-regulation for this new phenomenon of journalism.

EOOH

ABSTRACT Purpose: This short paper describes the dashboard design process for online hate speech monitoring for multiple languages and platforms. Methodology/approach: A case study approach was adopted in which the authors followed a research & development project for a multilingual and multiplatform online dashboard monitoring online hate speech. The case under study is the project for the European Observatory of Online Hate (EOOH). Results: We outline the process taken for design and prototype development for which a design thinking approach was followed, including multiple potential user groups of the dashboard. The paper presents this process's outcome and the dashboard's initial use. The identified issues, such as obfuscation of the context or identity of user accounts of social media posts limiting the dashboard's usability while providing a trade-off in privacy protection, may contribute to the discourse on privacy and data protection in (big data) social media analysis for practitioners. Research limitations/implications: The results are from a single case study. Still, they may be relevant for other online hate speech detection and monitoring projects involving big data analysis and human annotation. Practical implications: The study emphasises the need to involve diverse user groups and a multidisciplinary team in developing a dashboard for online hate speech. The context in which potential online hate is disseminated and the network of accounts distributing or interacting with that hate speech seems relevant for analysis by a part of the user groups of the dashboard. International Information Management Association