Public Interest, Local Laws, and Privacy Rules in India
Summary: Rahul Gandhi, the leader of India’s main opposition party, tweeted a photo of himself with the parents of a girl allegedly raped and killed in New Delhi. Since the […]
Trust and safety in practice
COVID-19 Around the Globe: The Removal of a Facebook Post About an Argentine Treatment
Summary: In December 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, an Argentinian government official published a post about the approval of a new Argentinian-developed treatment for COVID-19 to his […]
Cloudflare and The Daily Stormer: Content Moderation Meets the Stack
Summary: In 2017, Cloudflare, a web infrastructure and website security company, came under media scrutiny for hosting a U.S. based, self-proclaimed neo-Nazi website, The Daily Stormer. Despite numerous complaints to […]
Takedowns on YouTube skyrocket during pandemic as AI replaces human moderators (2020)
Summary: YouTube has always faced an uphill battle when it comes to content moderation. A decade ago, the job was impossible to handle with only human moderators. According to stats […]
Twitter briefly restricts account of writer reporting from the West Bank (2021)
Summary: In early May 2021, writer and researcher Mariam Barghouti was reporting from the West Bank on escalating conflicts between Israeli forces and Palestinian protestors, and making frequent social media […]
YouTube doubles down on questionable “graphic content” enforcement before reversing course (2020)
Summary: YouTube creators have frequently complained about the opaque and frustrating nature of the platform’s appeals process for videos that are restricted or removed for violating its Community Guidelines. Beyond […]
Facebook knew about deceptive advertising practices by a group that was later banned for operating a “troll farm” (2018-2020)
Summary: In the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections in the United States, progressive voters in seven competitive races in the Midwest were targeted with a series of Facebook ads […]
Roblox moderators combat in-game reenactments of mass shootings (2021)
Summary: Online game platform Roblox has gone from a niche offering to a cultural phenomenon over its 15 years of existence. Rivalling Minecraft in its ability to attract young users, […]
Nintendo blocks players from discussing COVID, other subjects (2020)
Summary: Nintendo has long striven to be the most family-friendly of game consoles. Its user base tends to skew younger and its attempts to ensure its offerings are welcoming and […]
Discord adds AI moderation to help fight abusive content (2021)
Summary: In the six years since Discord debuted its chat platform, it has seen explosive growth. And, over the past half-decade, Discord’s chat options have expanded to include GIFs, video, audio, […]