A Civics-oriented Approach to Understanding Intersectionally Marginalized Users' Experience with Hate Speech Online

TL;DR

This paper explores how intersectionally marginalized users in Bangladesh experience online hate speech, emphasizing their legal and participatory rights through a civics-oriented, user-centered framework called usership.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of usership as a civics-inspired approach to understanding marginalized users' experiences and participation in online platform governance.

Findings

Marginalized users face unique challenges due to intersectional identities.

The study highlights the importance of legal and participatory rights in online spaces.

Usership offers a new perspective on platform moderation and governance.

Abstract

While content moderation in online platforms marginalizes users in the Global South at large, users of certain identities are further marginalized. Such users often come from Indigenous ethnic minority groups or identify as women. Through a qualitative study based on 18 semi-structured interviews, this paper explores how such users' experiences with hate speech online in Bangladesh are shaped by their intersectional identities. Through a civics-oriented approach, we examined the spectrum of their legal status, membership, rights, and participation as users of online platforms. Drawing analogies with the concept of citizenship, we develop the concept of usership that offers a user-centered metaphor in studying moderation and platform governance.