TPRC 2024: The 52nd Research Conference on Communications, Information and Inter

Link to paper

Abstract:
Public debate has long focused on the challenges and flaws of commercial content moderation, which operates as a top-down mechanism on large-scale social media platforms, utilizing algorithms and human moderators to achieve platform-centralized content moderation goals. This approach has been criticized for its potential lack of democracy and legitimacy. This paper examines a community-reliant content moderation model, the digital juror system, which involves user juries blind-voting on content moderation cases. It explores the potential of this model to address existing content moderation issues. Focusing on two major Chinese social media platforms, Douyin and Sina Weibo as sites, this study employs semi-structured interviews with 15 public jurors working for these platforms. The research investigates these digital jurors’ intentions, experiences, and how they are influenced by their communal content moderation practices. The findings reveal that the digital juror system prompts community self-moderation driven by users’ sense of civic duty, but it also, to some extent, transforms content moderation into a form of entertainment or a microtask associated with hope labor. Additionally, although the digital juror model is designed to resemble the legal jury trial system, its democratic legitimacy is limited due to the omission of important procedural elements such as deliberation.