15.2. Example Moderator Set-ups#

Let’s look in more detail at some specific examples of moderator set-ups:

15.2.1. Reddit#

Reddit is divided into subreddits which are often about a specific topic. Each subreddit is moderated by volunteers who have special permissions, who reddit forbids from making any money:

Reddit is valued at more than ten billion dollars, yet it is extremely dependent on mods who work for absolutely nothing. Should they be paid, and does this lead to power-tripping mods?

In addition to the subreddit moderators, all reddit users can upvote or downvote comments and posts. The reddit recommendation algorithm promotes posts based on the upvotes and downvotes, and comments that get too many downvotes get automatically hidden.

Finally, reddit itself does some moderation as a platform in determining which subreddits can exist, and has on occasion shut down some.

Reflection Question:#

  • What is your take on the ethical trade-offs of unpaid reddit moderators? What do you think Reddit should do?

15.2.2. Wikipedia#

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that is crowdsourced by volunteer editors. You can go right now and change a Wikipedia page’s content if you want (as long as the page isn’t locked)! You can edit anonymously, or you can create an account. The Wikipedia community gives some editors administrator access, so they can perform more moderation tasks like blocking users or locking pages. Editors and administrators are generally not, paid, though they can be paid by other groups if they disclose and fill out forms

Wikipedia exists in multiple languages (each governed somewhat independently). When looking at the demographics of who writes the English Wikipeda articles, editors of wikipedia skew heavily male (around 80% or 90%), and presumably administrators skew heavily male as well. This can produce bias in how things are moderated. For example, Donna Strickland had no Wikipedia page before her Nobel. Her male collaborator did:

“Articles on Strickland had been drafted on the online encyclopedia before in May 2018 — but the draft was rejected by moderators. ‘This submission’s references do not show that the subject qualifies for a Wikipedia article,’ the moderators wrote, despite the fact that the original author linked to a page that showed Strickland was once president of the Optical Society, a major physics professional organization and publisher of some of the field’s top journals.”

Reflection Question:#

  • How should Wikipedia handle their editor/administrator demographics?

15.2.3. Facebook#

While Facebook groups and individual pages can be moderated by users, for the platform as a while, Facebook has paid moderation teams to make moderation decisions (whether on content flagged by bots, or content flagged by users).

As Facebook has grown, it has sought users from all over the globe, but as of 2019:

  • Facebook had menus and prompts in 111 different languages, which were deemed to be “officially supported”

  • Facebook’s “Community standards” rules were only translated into 41 of those languages

  • Facebook’s content moderators know about 50 languages (though they say they hire professional translators when needed)

  • Automated tools for identifying hate speech only work in about 30 languages

Reflection Questions:#

  • What dangers are posed with languages that have limited or no content moderation?

  • What do you think Facebook should do about this?