Portion of a figure from the Nature study depicting the transit of clusters of hate activity across and among platforms. An article from Eva Frederick in today's edition of Science gives some context and color commentary on a new study published in Nature that shows, among other things, how the circulation of cluster of online… Continue reading Science Magazine: “‘Dark pools’ of hate flourish online. Here are four controversial ways to fight them” – and my response
Tag: commercial content moderation
“The Cleaners,” commercial content moderation documentary, airs on PBS’s Independent Lens
UPDATE: The Cleaners is currently available for streaming for US audiences. At long last, The Cleaners makes its American wide-release début! The documentary film, first released this January at the Sundance film festival and making appearances at Hot Docs, Human Rights Watch Film Festival and other festivals around the world, will air tonight on the… Continue reading “The Cleaners,” commercial content moderation documentary, airs on PBS’s Independent Lens
First(?) Academic Job to Reference “Content Moderation” Appears at Michigan
Saving here as much for posterity as to share it, the following announcement for a position in Michigan's School of Information for the 2018-19 has appeared. Of particular interest to me, and likely to many readers, is the fact that the job as specifically mentions "content moderation" as an area of specialization. To my knowledge,… Continue reading First(?) Academic Job to Reference “Content Moderation” Appears at Michigan
Update: ARTE’s Trailer Not Removed, But the Confusion Is the Story
Yesterday, I wrote about the case of what appeared to have been a removal of a trailer for the documentary film The Cleaners. I'll point you to that post so that I don't need to rehash it too much here and I can get right to the update. Here's the update. This morning (US-time), the… Continue reading Update: ARTE’s Trailer Not Removed, But the Confusion Is the Story
“The Cleaners,” Cleaned – Google’s YouTube Removes Trailer for Content Moderation Documentary, Citing “Shocking Content”
PLEASE SEE THIS UPDATE FOR IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION Today, news from France: it seems the French outlet of the Franco-German television channel ARTÉ (known as ARTE in Germany) has found itself on the wrong side of Google and YouTube's opaque and mysterious content moderation policy for videos. The irony? The video that has been removed is a… Continue reading “The Cleaners,” Cleaned – Google’s YouTube Removes Trailer for Content Moderation Documentary, Citing “Shocking Content”
Carnegie Fellows 2018 – An Honor
It is with gratitude that I share with you the news that I am one of 31 recipients of the 2018 Carnegie Fellowship. This is a career-defining honor for which I am supremely grateful and by which I am deeply humbled. I was able to respond to the news this morning on Twitter, and then… Continue reading Carnegie Fellows 2018 – An Honor
New article: Digital detritus: ‘Error’ and the logic of opacity in social media content moderation
Announcing a new article on the politics of commercial content moderation: Digital detritus: 'Error' and the logic of opacity in social media content moderation. This article is part of a special issue of First Monday devoted to gender and digital labor, edited by Carolyn Elerding, Roopika Risam and Radhika Gajjala. The issue also features contributions from… Continue reading New article: Digital detritus: ‘Error’ and the logic of opacity in social media content moderation
PRI Science Friday: The Invisible Humans Who Sanitize the Internet
On Friday, March 10, I appeared on PRI's Science Friday program to discuss commercial content moderation (CCM). Along with me was Rochelle LaPlante, who has been working on CCM via microlabor platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turk for over 10 years. Of particular interest was a caller who dialed in from Iowa to talk about his… Continue reading PRI Science Friday: The Invisible Humans Who Sanitize the Internet
CCM in the Atlantic connects phenomenon to key questions of democracy
I'm pleased to report that, after many, many months in the works, my article on commercial content moderation has appeared in the Atlantic today. The story has taken many forms over the past few months of work on it, and has undergone necessary evolutions in response to rapid developments in social media-related conversations, and public pushback… Continue reading CCM in the Atlantic connects phenomenon to key questions of democracy
What is content moderation? What is CCM?
I am frequently contacted by press and by colleagues who ask me to define commercial content moderation, or CCM. In order to do so, it is also necessary to discuss social media content moderation, more generally - all of which leads to a need to historicize these practices in the larger history of the Internet.… Continue reading What is content moderation? What is CCM?