Open AccessUnderstanding international perceptions of the severity of harmful content online
Author(s) -
Jialun Aaron Jiang,
Morgan Klaus Scheuerman,
Casey Fiesler,
Jed R. Brubaker
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0256762
Subject(s) - misinformation , moderation , status quo , perception , social media , the internet , internet privacy , empirical evidence , psychology , business , environmental health , political science , medicine , computer science , social psychology , world wide web , computer security , neuroscience , law , philosophy , epistemology
Online social media platforms constantly struggle with harmful content such as misinformation and violence, but how to effectively moderate and prioritize such content for billions of global users with different backgrounds and values presents a challenge. Through an international survey with 1,696 internet users across 8 different countries across the world, this empirical study examines how international users perceive harmful content online and the similarities and differences in their perceptions. We found that across countries, the perceived severity consistently followed an exponential growth as the harmful content became more severe, but what harmful content were perceived as more or less severe varied significantly. Our results challenge platform content moderation’s status quo of using a one-size-fits-all approach to govern international users, and provide guidance on how platforms may wish to prioritize and customize their moderation of harmful content.