Do You Care Who Flagged This Post? Effects of Moderator Visibility on Bystander Behavior
Dublin Core
Title
Do You Care Who Flagged This Post? Effects of Moderator Visibility on Bystander Behavior
Subject
Online Harassment, Content Moderation, Transparency, Visibility, Bystander Intervention
Description
This study evaluates whether increasing information visibility around the identity of a moderator influences bystanders’ likelihood to flag subsequent unmoderated harassing comments. In a
2-day preregistered experiment conducted in a realistic social media simulation, participants
encountered ambiguous or unambiguous harassment comments, which were ostensibly flagged by either other users, an automated system (AI), or an unidentified moderation source. The
results reveal that visibility of a content moderation source inhibited participants’ flagging of a
subsequent unmoderated harassment comment, presumably because their efforts were seen as
dispensable, compared to when the moderation source was unknown. On the contrary, there was
an indirect effect of other users versus AI as moderation source on subsequent flagging through
changes in perceived social norms. Overall, this research shows that the effects of moderation
transparency are complex, as increasing visibility of a content moderator may inadvertently inhibit bystander intervention.
2-day preregistered experiment conducted in a realistic social media simulation, participants
encountered ambiguous or unambiguous harassment comments, which were ostensibly flagged by either other users, an automated system (AI), or an unidentified moderation source. The
results reveal that visibility of a content moderation source inhibited participants’ flagging of a
subsequent unmoderated harassment comment, presumably because their efforts were seen as
dispensable, compared to when the moderation source was unknown. On the contrary, there was
an indirect effect of other users versus AI as moderation source on subsequent flagging through
changes in perceived social norms. Overall, this research shows that the effects of moderation
transparency are complex, as increasing visibility of a content moderator may inadvertently inhibit bystander intervention.
Creator
Aparajita Bhandari, Marie Ozanne, Natalya N. Bazarova, and Dominic DiFranzo
Source
https://academic.oup.com/jcmc/article/26/5/284/6335779
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Date
28 January 2021
Contributor
Sri Wahyuni
Format
PDF
Language
English
Type
Text
Coverage
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 26 (2021)
Files
Collection
Citation
Aparajita Bhandari, Marie Ozanne, Natalya N. Bazarova, and Dominic DiFranzo, “Do You Care Who Flagged This Post? Effects of Moderator Visibility on Bystander Behavior,” Repository Horizon University Indonesia, accessed May 21, 2025, https://repository.horizon.ac.id/items/show/8712.