Social Media Moderation
Ysabel Gerrard · 2022
Until social media content moderation exploded as a public concern in the latter half of the 2010s, it was one of the tech world’s best-kept secrets. Only a handful of writers had paid attention to the hidden, mostly human labour of screening the internet for illicit content. While greater public awareness has forced tech companies to talk more openly about content moderation, its particularities are still somewhat of a mystery. In this chapter, I lift the lid on social media content moderation, giving readers an overview of what the work entails, why we need it, how the practice works on both human and technical levels, and what the future of content moderation may hold. This chapter combines academic writing with a range of contemporary examples, including livestreamed suicides, pole-dancing and make-up tutorials, eating disorder recovery communities, and the COVID-19 pandemic.