Content Moderation: Background Reading

Regardless of the problem being addressed by content moderation, removal of an online post is a limitation of a user’s freedom of expression, so this also needs to be done in a way which is predictable, legitimate, necessary and proportionate.

To minimise the risk of hasty, ineffective, counterproductive or disproportionate responses to newly arising challenges, (moderators) should aim to develop a clear, public methodology for categorising different types of content and developing adequate and human rights compliant responses. Such a public methodology should be made available by (…) online platforms in a transparent and easily accessible manner.

Content Moderation Guidance Note, Council of Europe

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights – United Nations
• Human Rights Act – United Kingdom
• European Convention on Human Rights – European Court of Human Rights

Ethical Web Principles – The web should be a platform that helps people and provides a positive social benefit. As we continue to evolve the web platform, we must therefore consider the consequences of our work.

Fediverse Guides

Moderation guides written by Fediverse admins and moderation teams.

• A Guide to Moderating in the Fediverse: The Basics (tenforward.social)
• Mastodon Moderation Run-Down (chat.noelle.codes)

Research

• Moderating the Fediverse: Content Moderation on Distributed Social Media: Current approaches to content moderation generally assume the continued dominance of “walled gardens”: social media platforms that control who can use their services and how. But an emerging form of decentralized social media—the “Fediverse”—offers an alternative model, one more akin to how email works and that avoids many of the pitfalls of centralized moderation. This essay, which builds on an emerging literature around decentralized social media, seeks to give an overview of the Fediverse, its benefits and drawbacks, and how government action can influence and encourage its development. Rozenshtein, Alan Z., Moderating the Fediverse: Content Moderation on Distributed Social Media (November 23, 2022). 3 Journal of Free Speech Law 217 (2023), Minnesota Legal Studies Research Paper No. 23-19

Best Practices

• Content Moderation: Best practices towards effective legal and procedural frameworks for self-regulatory and co-regulatory mechanisms of content moderation — Adopted by the Steering Committee for Media and Information Society (CDMSI)
• Content Moderation Best Practices for Startups
• The Do’s And Don’ts Of Content Moderation
• 6 content moderation guidelines to consider
• 7 Best Practices for Content Moderation

Ensuring Safety for Marginalised People

• Using Social Media in Community-Based Protection: Moderation and Sensitive Content (UNHCR): This chapter looks at how to use Social Media for conversations around sensitive issues that affect PoCs’ rights. It explains how to moderate content online and how to use Social Media for constructive dialogue.
• Gender-Inclusive Content Moderation – Alice Hunsberger, Vanity Brown, and Lily Galib
• Contestability For Content Moderation – Kristen Vaccaro, Ziang Xiao, Kevin Hamilton, and Karrie Karahalios. 2021. Contestability For Content Moderation. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 5, CSCW2, Article 318 (October 2021), 28 pages.