Moderation Challenges in Voice-based Online Communities on Discord

Abstract

Online community moderators are on the front lines of combating problems like hate speech and harassment, but new modes of interaction can introduce unexpected challenges. In this paper, we consider moderation practices and challenges in the context of real-time, voice-based communication through 25 in-depth interviews with moderators on Discord. Our findings suggest that the affordances of voice-based online communities change what it means to moderate content and interactions. Not only are there new ways to break rules that moderators of text-based communities find unfamiliar, such as disruptive noise and voice raiding, but acquiring evidence of rule-breaking behaviors is also more difficult due to the ephemerality of real-time voice. While moderators have developed new moderation strategies, these strategies are limited and often based on hearsay and first impressions, resulting in problems ranging from unsuccessful moderation to false accusations. Based on these findings, we discuss how voice communication complicates current understandings and assumptions about moderation, and outline ways that platform designers and administrators can design technology to facilitate moderation.

Moderation Visibility: Mapping the Strategies of Volunteer Moderators in Live Streaming Micro Communities

“…Not only was it a severe punishment for the user, but moderators also used this command sparingly because it afected the overall viewership. However, many moderators mentioned that they had "zero tolerance" towards obvious and severe issues such as racism and sexism and would ban these behaviors, similar to prior work [32,52].…”

“…P07 said, "Those that just fail to understand what they're saying, it's either rude or something, we'll purge what they said." Sometimes, deleting was followed by an explanation or warning, resonating Jiang's work of moderation in live voice communities [32].…”

Voices From the Locker Room: A Qualitative Analysis of Voice Messages Within Italian NSFW Groups.

“…Our research aims to understand the use of voice messages in NSFW group chats, where participation may involve social stigma. More specifically we look at the interactional possibilities afforded by voice messages, at the style of self-disclosure associated with them and at the emerging issues in the moderation process of audio contents (Jiang et al 2019). The choice to focus on Telegram closed group chats dedicated to sharing and discussing adult entertainment follows three motivations.…”

“…After a first phase where texting got over phone calls (GFDS 2018), research is showing that voice messages shared within chats (König 2019) seems to be the uprising. While a consistent volume of research on computer-mediated spoken interaction (CMSI) shreds light on the implications of synchronous voice communication (Jenks 2014, Jiang et al 2019 there is still space for the investigation of the use of voice messages within Instant Messaging (IM) platforms.…”

Conformity of Eating Disorders through Content Moderation

“…Broadly, content moderation may involve automated systems, community flagging and reporting [23], and outsourced labor [47,104,105]. Several social media platforms, including Reddit and Facebook (e.g., subreddits, Facebook groups), also rely on community moderators-at times, with automated systems-to manage groups of individuals with similar interests, as well as transient visitors [60,63,66,84,112]. We distinguish this instance of moderation, in which moderators and other members of communities engage in shaping (i.e., moderating) particular forms of participation online, from platform moderation.…”