Content Moderation in the Digital Democracy: What's the Problem?

• In Event: The Politics of Moderation

Abstract

The idea that digital technology is challenging democratic processes and institutions is widespread, but there is no agreement on the specific nature of the problems, much less on potential solutions. This paper studies this ongoing "issue definition" process by focusing on the discourse on private online content moderation, a longstanding issue that became particularly salient after social media platforms banned Donald Trump and other political actors in January 2021. Specifically, we analyze how content moderation is framed as a politically relevant issue and how it is linked with potential policy responses. Our empirical analysis proceeds in three steps. First, we collect a large number of statements on private online content moderation from newspapers as well as Twitter feeds and Facebook pages. Second, we apply and compare different methods to measure how the issue of content moderation is framed, including topic models, word embeddings, dictionaries, and supervised classifications. Third, we show the distribution of different frames across different actors and over time, comparing in particular the period before and after Trump's ban by various platforms in January 2021. The findings lay the groundwork for a thorough understanding of how politics responds to digital technology's impact on democracy.

Authors

• Fabrizio Gilardi, University of Zurich

• Emma Hoes, Zurich University

• K. Jonathan Klüser, University of Zürich

• Maël Dominique Kubli, University of Zurich

• Nahema Marchal, University of Zurich