Social Media has become a huge part in the daily lives of humans for the past 10-15 years. Not only is social media used for entertainment, but these platforms are also crucial for small businesses and large corporations. Businesses will most likely decline or fail completely without a social media presence. Many brands will use UGC creators to promote their products and gain a larger following and increase customer engagement. Social media platforms may be helpful, but an online community can have negative effects such as poor commentary and degrading messages.
What is Comment Moderation?
There has not always been comment moderating on social media platforms. When platforms like Instagram and Facebook started out in the early to mid 2000’s, comment moderation did not happen right away. Comment moderating happened within time due to the effects of insulting and upsetting comments from social media users. Comment moderating is where comments get reviewed and are taken into account if they meet community guidelines. Comments may get flagged and then reviewed. Many platforms have an automatic system now where comments will be flagged and not shown due to platform policies. Users may also contribute to comment moderating by reporting comments by clicking the “report” button in the comment section. Comment moderating is the reality of social media nowadays and this process ensures a safe and happy online community.
Pros of Comment Moderating
- Ensures Community Standards: All social media platforms have community guidelines and policies in order to ensure a safe and positive online community. By moderating hateful and inconsiderate comments on social media platforms, standards will be met.
- Protects Your Image: Whether you are running a social media page for your own personal account or for the company you work for, image is a leading factor in the success you will gain. One bad experience can cause individuals to go online and post a hateful and angry message. By moderating comments on your page, you can ensure negative comments and inconsiderate comments are deleted in order to maintain a positive and encouraging image.
- Maintain Safe and Healthy Communities: Social media has been an amazing online community and has helped many companies succeed and gain a larger audience. Moderation allows for healthy communication and a place where people can feel safe and heard.
- Protection of Harmful Commentary: Social media can have negative aspects such as hate comments and hurtful messages. Social media platforms now have a system where pages can be protected from these messages. Certain words and phrases cannot be posted on platforms now in order to maintain kind and encouraging commentary.
Cons of Comment Moderating
- Mental Health of Moderators: A moderators job is to filter out and look over flagged commentary on social media platforms. These individuals are doing a great act in keeping online communities safe and happy. However, constant reading of hateful and disturbing words can affect moderators negatively. Moderators have claimed their mental health has been affected due to repetition from seeing discouraging content.
- Free Speech is Affected: Content creators and social media users have claimed their free speech has been affected and restricted through the process of comment moderating. These individuals feel as they cannot fully have freedom of speech when their comments will be removed from socials.
- Self-Expression is Reduced: Individuals have claimed their self-expression has been affected and they cannot truly be themselves with this system of comment moderation. On social media platforms, as a user, you can report a comment if you believe it is hurtful and damaging to the account user. This process has controversy since there are many different interpretations of what is hateful or not.
- Inconsistency: This system can be inconsistent because comments are removed and processed through comment moderators. Everyone has different views and opinions on certain topics and words. One moderator may feel as a flagged comment is acceptable and keep the comment on the site, while another moderator may feel as that comment is hateful and remove it immediately.
Conclusion
In conclusion, moderating comments on social media has pros and cons. Ultimately, comment moderating can help avoid bad situations and hurt feelings and emotions. Moderating can also help maintain adequate brand and self image by flagging comments and hiding words that would decline your online presence and motives. Comment moderating can help keep a safe and kind online environment, but may also affect freedom of speech and self expression. Mental health is also affected through comment moderating through the users themselves and the moderators. Social media is a fast-growing and popular online space, which means there needs to be guidelines and policies in order to ensure a balance between peace and creativity.
Sources
https://hbr.org/2022/11/content-moderation-is-terrible-by-design
Teaching Social Media 