Personalizing Content Moderation on Social Media: User Perspectives on Moderation Choices, Interface Design, and Labor

TL;DR

This study explores social media users' perceptions of personal content moderation tools, their preferences, and the impact on perceptions of platform responsibility, through interviews and simulated interface interactions.

Contribution

It provides novel insights into user attitudes towards personalized moderation tools and discusses design implications for enhancing transparency and control.

Findings

Users value transparency and control in moderation tools.

Personalization influences perceptions of platform responsibility.

Users are willing to engage labor for better moderation control.

Abstract

Social media platforms moderate content for each user by incorporating the outputs of both platform-wide content moderation systems and, in some cases, user-configured personal moderation preferences. However, it is unclear (1) how end users perceive the choices and affordances of different kinds of personal content moderation tools, and (2) how the introduction of personalization impacts user perceptions of platforms' content moderation responsibilities. This paper investigates end users' perspectives on personal content moderation tools by conducting an interview study with a diverse sample of 24 active social media users. We probe interviewees' preferences using simulated personal moderation interfaces, including word filters, sliders for toxicity levels, and boolean toxicity toggles. We also examine the labor involved for users in choosing moderation settings and present users' attitudes about the roles and responsibilities of social media platforms and other stakeholders towards moderation. We discuss how our findings can inform design solutions to improve transparency and controllability in personal content moderation tools.