Former content moderator and current director of the Ada Lovelace Institute, Andrew Strait and Elizabeth chat about what content moderation is, why it is always flawed, and how the way in which platforms are constructed impact the flow of content. They talk about a bunch of related issues including how to (and how not to) regulate tech companies in order to minimize harms.

Additional Resources

Andrew recommended two great books that look at content moderation and content moderators: Behind the Screen by Sarah T. Roberts and Custodians of the Internet by Tarleton Gillespie. 

This interview with Sarah T. Roberts discusses the psychological impact of being a content moderator. 

After the interview Andrew also mentioned the work of Daphne Keller and Robyn Caplan.

Andrew brings up the landmark “right to be forgotten” case from 2014.

The German regulation mentioned in this episode is NetzDG. Here is a primer written by academics Heidi Tworek and Paddy Leerssen in April 2019, just over a year after the regulation came into effect.

This episode Andrew mentions the idea of affordances. To learn more about this concept make sure to come back for next week’s episode where we will explore technological affordances!

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.