The growth of social media platforms with the expansion of the mobile internet has increased by the creation and consumption of User Generated Content (UGC). Social media platforms have evolved into a major avenue for broadcasting, circulating, and exchanging knowledge to billions of people worldwide. However, due to the huge amount of information shared via social media platforms, incidences of online harassment have increased, prompting the need for online content moderation.
What is Cyberbullying?
It is bullying that occurs via the use of digital technologies. It can occur on social networking sites, chat systems, gaming platforms, and mobile phones. It is repetitive behavior intended to frighten, anger, or shame targeted individuals. This includes:
- Spreading false information and statistics about incidents and users or uploading upsetting photographs or videos of someone on social media sites
- Using social media platforms to send malicious, abusive, or menacing messages, graphical illustrations, photos, or videos
Effects of Cyberbullying:
Students' grades suffered as a result of being a victim of cyberbullying. About 41% of victims said they became less active in class, 24% said their school performance had dropped, and 35% said they had to repeat a grade after becoming victims of cyberbullying.
A research study found that 31% of victims of online harassment reported being very or extremely upset, 19% were very or extremely scared, and 18% were very or extremely embarrassed. They also discovered that repeated acts of cyberbullying jeopardized healthy self-esteem development and contributed to school failure, dropout, and increased psychological symptoms like depression and anxiety.
How is cyberbullying getting controlled?
When an objectionable post appears in a social sharing site's news feed, the platform takes prompt action to remove the post or, in extreme situations, warn and prohibit the user from the site. Both social sharing sites and users can now report bullying incidents on social media channels by utilizing the report buttons, which are located somewhere on the social networking sites, most likely in the 'Help' area. They will assess the content and determine its legitimacy based on the nature of the post published on the site. The solution lies in content moderation, and that is how cyberbullying will be controlled.
What is Content moderation?
Content moderation is how online platform screens and monitors user-generated content to determine whether or not the content should be published on the online platform. To put it another way, when a user submits content to a website, that content will go through a screening procedure (the moderating process) to ensure that it adheres to the website's rules, is not inappropriate, harassing, unlawful, etc.
Every day, incredible amounts of text, photos, and video are uploaded, and companies need a mechanism to monitor the material hosted on their platforms. This is essential for keeping your clients secure and trusted, for monitoring social impacts on brand perception, and for adhering to legal requirements. The best way to do all of that is through content moderation. It enables internet businesses to give their customers a secure and wholesome environment. Social media, dating websites and apps, markets, forums, and other similar platforms all make extensive use of content moderation.
Why Content moderation?
Social media platforms have regulations that prevent users from uploading certain types of information, such as graphic violence, child sexual exploitation, and hostile content or speech. Depending on the severity of the users' infractions, an operator may temporarily or permanently ban them.
Several sources are used by social media operators to
- Users' content that appears to be abusive or offensive in any way should be flagged or removed
- Prevent users from accessing the website
- Involve government authorities in taking action against such users in extreme cases of bullying
For the above reasons, content moderation has emerged to pave the way for a better customer experience without misjudging.
Benefits of Content moderation:
You require an extensible content moderation procedure that enables you to evaluate the toxicity of a remark by examining its surrounding context. The major importance of moderation consists of
- Safeguard Communities and Advertisers
- By preventing toxic behavior such as harassment, cyberbullying, hate speech, spam, and much more, platforms can foster a welcoming, inclusive community. With well-thought-out and consistently enforced content moderation policies and procedures, you can help users avoid negative or traumatizing online experiences.
- Raising Brand Loyalty and Engagement
- Communities that are safe, inclusive, and engaged are not born. They are purposefully created and maintained by dedicated community members and Trust & Safety professionals. When platforms can provide a great user experience free of toxicity, they grow and thrive.
Challenges of Content moderation:
The newest technology and an army of human content moderators are being used by several corporations today to monitor social and traditional media for fraudulent viral user-produced material. Meanwhile, the challenges of content moderation include
Type of the content
- A system that works well for the written word may not be useful for real-time video, sound, and live chat monitoring. Platforms should look for solutions that allow them to control user-generated content in various formats.
Content volume
- Managing the massive amount of content published daily - every minute - is much too much for a content moderation crew to handle in real time. As a result, several platforms are experimenting with automated and AI-powered solutions and depending on people to report prohibited online conduct.
Interpretations Based on Context
- When examined in different contexts, user-generated information might have significantly different meanings. On gaming platforms, for example, there is a culture of 'trash talk,' in which users communicate and give each other a hard time to boost competitiveness.
Do’s of Content moderation.
Since content moderation is important, so is its need. Check out the do’s to prevent such cyberbullying and those include,
- Familiarize yourself with the nature of the business
- Understand Your Target Market
- Establish House Rules and Community Guidelines
- Understand Your Moderation Methods
- Use Caution When Using Self-Moderation or Distributed Moderation
- Emphasize Open Communication
- Capability in Business
Don’ts of Content moderation
As it has to do’s, there exist don’ts as well. Look into the don’ts which we must keep in mind.
- Misinterpreting what good content is
- Take a long time before you start your content moderation
- Resource wastage
- Putting Too Much Trust in Automated Filters
- Neglecting Feedback
Summary
Through this article, the content moderation is highly enlightening since the world has turned out to be an unsafe place for people to indent with the social media culture. Nevertheless, cyberbullying happens with or without people's intervention. On the whole, the way that content moderators rule cyberbullying has been explained by this.
In conclusion, people should be aware of the cyber security standards and the scope of cyber security, which has been evolving to safeguard people from getting their personal information. To learn about this, check Skillslash for its courses, such as the Data Science Certification course in Delhi.