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Cornell University Mann Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA

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COMMColloquium

Behind the Banhammer: An Ethnography of Community Moderation on Reddit

Sarah Gilbert, Postdoc and Research Manager for CAT Lab, Cornell University

2pm in 102 Mann

Reception to follow in the Hub

 

As online communities play important roles in the way we work, socialize, and access information, we find ourselves regularly navigating issues such as discrimination and abuse, mis/disinformation, polarization and extremism. Online platforms are increasingly relying on content moderation to contend with these issues. Questions like, how do decisions about who sees what get made? and how can we support fairer moderation processes? have become fundamental to understanding the current state and possibilities for community discourse online. I use ethnographic and participatory methods to study these questions in online communities. In this talk I will discuss five years of ethnographic research with r/AskHistorians moderators and its large community, addressing issues that impact community moderation labour such as platform design and culture, decision making processes and managing disagreement, and the impact of moderation on individual users and the wider community. I demonstrate that community moderators have an important yet often overlooked role in shaping the spaces in which we engage and the information we find there. Better understanding and supporting their work is critical to realizing the potential of online platforms for fair and productive discourse.

 

Sarah Gilbert (she/her/hers) is a postdoctoral associate Cornell University and Research Manager of the Citizens and Technology Lab. Her work focuses on understanding and designing healthy online communities, studying topics like what influences participation, how people learn in online communities, how volunteer moderators’ labor impacts community governance, and how research in those areas can be done ethically. 

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