Topic territoriality and the cost of civility: examining the
impact of IP address disclosure on Weibo

Topic territoriality and the cost of civility: examining the
impact of IP address disclosure on Weibo

topic territoriality, intergroup communication, psychological ownership, identity cues, toxicity.

This article introduces the concept of “topic territoriality,” a mechanism that governs participation in conversational spaces. When a discussion
becomes prone to territorialization, individuals are more likely to claim topics (participating in discussions about topics they own as
“stakeholders”) and defer (reducing participation in topics owned by others). They are also more likely to patrol topic boundaries (monitoring
who is participating and confronting topic “intruders”). We document the operation of topic territoriality by analyzing 112,278 conversational
turns on Weibo before and after a policy that reveals users’ broad geographic locations. We find that revealing these locations increased
territorial behaviors, leading to more homogenous participation in conversations. Although the display of locations has improved the overall
civility in language, the confrontations between stakeholders and intruders became more toxic. Our research emphasizes the impact of topic
territoriality in online conversations and sheds light on the unintended consequences of social media policies.

Chao Yu 1,�, Drew Margolin

https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmae018

Oxford University Press on behalf of International Communication Association.

August 12, 2024

PERI IRAWAN

PDF

ENGLISH

TEXT