Reading Log - May 12, 2023 (#28)

Everyone tends to think that they can do content moderation better than Twitter, Reddit, Facebook and all the other social media sites. The truth of the matter is that it’s not easy. Sure some posts should be pretty obvious they need to be removed, but there’s also a lot more nuance behind it.

A friend of mine in the trust & safety world once suggested that these conversations would be a lot more useful if everyone had to spend a few days moderating an actual community, and could learn how content moderation is not about “suppressing viewpoints,” but almost always about understanding really complex scenarios in which you have to make decisions in a very limited period of time, with limited information, and where there may not be any “right” answer.

Nails it right on the head. The moderators are having to deal with countless reports in a very short timeframe and are often dealing with content that can be absolutely awful and soul sucking.

This little game helps show some of the pressures and things the moderators have to deal with. I’d highly recommend giving it a go.