Since the recent US election the user-base of the “free-speech” platform Parler increased. It is not the first time conservatives flock away from Twitter and Facebook in the search of a less controlled alternative. Moderation of hateful or radical content on social media has been a central point of discussion in the recent years. Yet, much remains unknown about the decisions of platforms on how content is moderated and what the consequences are for mobilization on the radical right.
The 2020 US elections showed a shift in how platforms dealt with political content. Twitter did not allow for political advertisements at all, and Facebook restricted advertisement a few days before the election. During the election and vote count, Facebook and Instagram added real-time information from news sources directly to the posts sent out by both presidential candidates. Twitter used various notifications to inform users that content of tweets was disputed and made it harder to share such tweets.
Platform interference is not a new phenomenon. Behind the screens, thousands of content moderators are cleaning social media platforms of its most gruesome content. Child pornography or videos of beheadings are clear cases that need to be removed. Most cases of removal are not so obvious. When it comes to the moderation practices of removing hateful tweets or radical right pages, it is often more opaque why certain content is removed. Often times, content moderators are so overwhelmed with the amount of flagged content that they lack time to provide feedback on individual removals.
