Mapping the Landscape of Content Moderation: A Bibliometric Perspective

Year 2024, Volume: 1 Issue: 2, 85 - 109, 29.11.2024

Özlem Ozan , Ali Rıza Sadıkzade

Abstract

Rapid technological advancements have intensified user-content interactions, leading to complex regulation mechanisms such as A.I. filtering and user moderation. This study conducts a bibliometric analysis of 202 publications from 2016 to 2023, sourced from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, to explore contemporary topics in content moderation research. It identifies influential authors, institutions, countries, journals, funding agencies, keyword networks, and co-authorship patterns. The findings indicate that the Queensland University of Technology is the most influential institution, while the United States, England, and Australia are the most productive countries. The National Science Foundation and European Research Council are key funding bodies. New Media & Society, Social Media + Society, and Big Data & Society are leading journals in this field. Research primarily focuses on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter, with a thematic shift from transparency to hate speech and misinformation. Since 2016, there has been a steady increase in academic publications on content moderation, suggesting continued growth in this area across various disciplines.

Keywords

Content Moderation, Social Media, Social Media Regulations, Bibliometric Analysis, Bibliometric Data

Ethical Statement

The manuscript titled " Mapping the Landscape of Content Moderation: A Bibliometric Perspective " does not require Ethics Committee approval. The study does not involve human participants, animal subjects, or any sensitive data that would necessitate such approval. All data analyzed in this research were sourced from publicly available databases, ensuring that no personal or confidential information was collected or utilized.

İçerik Moderasyonu Alanının Haritalandırılması: Bibliyometrik Bir Perspektif

Abstract

Hızla gelişen teknolojiler, kullanıcı ve içerik etkileşimlerini artırarak yapay zeka filtreleme ve kullanıcı moderasyonu gibi karmaşık düzenleme mekanizmalarının uygulanmasını gerekli kılmıştır. Bu çalışma, 2016-2023 yılları arasında Web of Science ve Scopus veritabanlarından elde edilen 202 yayının bibliyometrik analizini yaparak, içerik moderasyonu araştırmalarındaki güncel konuları incelemeyi hedeflemektedir. Araştırma, etkili yazarların, kurumların, ülkelerin, dergilerin, fon sağlayıcı kuruluşların, anahtar kelime ağlarının ve ortak yazarlık ilişkilerinin belirlenmesini amaçlamaktadır. Bulgulara göre, Queensland Teknoloji Üniversitesi en etkili kurum, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri, İngiltere ve Avustralya ise en üretken ülkelerdir. National Science Foundation ve European Research Council, başlıca fon sağlayıcı kuruluşlar arasında yer almaktadır. New Media & Society, Social Media + Society ve Big Data & Society bu alandaki en etkili dergilerdir. Araştırmalar, genellikle Facebook, Instagram, YouTube ve Twitter gibi sosyal medya platformlarına odaklanmakta olup, araştırma temalarında şeffaflıktan nefret söylemi ve yanlış bilgilendirmeye doğru bir kayma görülmektedir. 2016 yılından bu yana akademik yayınlarda istikrarlı bir artış gözlenmekte, söz konusu ilginin farklı disiplinleri de kapsayan daha fazla sayıda araştırmaya yol açması beklenmektedir.

Keywords

İçerik Moderasyonu, Sosyal Medya, Sosyal Medya Düzenlemeleri, Bibliyometrik Analiz, Bibliometric Veri

References

• Amnesty International. (2022, September, 29). Myanmar: Facebook’s systems promoted violence against Rohingya; Meta owes reparations – new report. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/09/myanmar-facebooks-systems-promoted-violenceagainst-rohingya-metaowes-reparations-new-report/
• Angwin, J. & Grassegger, H. (2017, June, 28). Facebook’s secret censorship rules protect white men from hate speech but not black children. ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-hate-speech-censorship-internal-documents-algorithms
• Audureau, W. (2022, August, 10). Alex Jones trial: A record fine intended to make misinformers pay. LeMonde’,. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decodeurs/article/2022/08/10/alex-jones-trial-a-record-fine-intended-tomake-misinformers-pay_5993081_8.html
• Barrett, P.M. (2020). Who moderates the social media giants? A call to end outsourcing. NYUSTERN. https://bhr.stern.nyu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/NYUContentModerationReport_FINALVERSION.pdf
• Benckendorff, P., & Zehrer, A. (2013). A network analysis of tourism research. Annals of tourism research, 43, 121-149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2013.04.005.
• Broadus, R.N. (1987). Toward a definition of “bibliometrics”. Scientometrics, 12(5–6),373–379. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02016680.
• Byman, D. (no date). Content moderation tools to stop extremism. Lawfare (2022nd ed.). https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/content-moderation-tools-stop-extremism
• Caplan, R. (2018) Content or context moderation? Artisanal, community-reliant, and industrial approaches. Data & Society.https://datasociety.net/library/content-or-context-moderation/
• CBS News. (2022, November, 14 ). Musk fires outsourced content moderators who track abuse on Twitter. CBS News. Available at: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-twitter-layoffs-outsourced-contentmoderators/
• CBS News. (2024, March, 25). Judge tosses out X lawsuit against hate-speech researchers, saying Elon Musk tried to punish critics. CBS News. Available at: cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-x-lawsuit-dismissed-hate-speech/.
• Center for Countering Digital Hate. (2023). Twitter fails to act on 99% of Twitter Blue account stweeting hate. https://counterhate.com/research/twitter-fails-to-act-on-twitter-blue-accounts-tweeting-hate/#about.
• Cobo, M. J., López‐Herrera, A. G., Herrera‐Viedma, E., & Herrera, F. (2011). Science mapping software tools: Review, analysis, and cooperative study among tools. Journal of the American Society for information Science and Technology, 62(7), 1382-1402. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.21525.
• Debre, I. and Akram (2021, October, 26) ‘Facebook’s language gaps weaken screening of hate, terrorism’. The Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/the-facebookpapers-language-moderation-problems392cb2d065f81980713f37384d07e61f?utm_source=copy&utm_medium=share
• De Guzman, C. (2024, March, 27). What to Know About Meta’s ‘Political Content’ Limit—and How to Turn It Off on Instagram. Time. https://time.com/6960587/meta-instagram-political-content-limit-off-setting-default/
• Dey, M. (2023, December, 29). Elon Musk's X fails to block California's content moderation law. Reuters. https://w w w.reuters.com/sustainability/society-equity/elon-musks-x-fails-block-californias-content-moderation-law-2023-12-29/
• D.W. News. (2023, October, 11). German anti-racism body leaves X over 'rise in hate speech'. https://www.dw.com/en/german-anti-racism-body-leaves-x-over-rise-in-hate-speech/a-67065363.
• Ferrara, E. et al. (2020) ‘Characterizing social media manipulation in the 2020 U.S. presidential election’, First Monday [Preprint]. https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v25i11.11431
• Field of Vision. (2017, April, 14. Field of Vision – The Moderators [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9m0axUDpro&t=1s
• Freedland, J. (2024, August, 9) You know who else should be on trial for the U.K.'s far right riots? Elon Musk. The Guardian. https://theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/09/uk-far-right-riots-elon-musk-x
• Fung, B. (2021, January, 9) ‘Twitter bans President Trump permanently’. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/08/tech/trump-twitter-ban/index.html
• Gerrard, Y. (2018). Beyond the hashtag: Circumventing content moderation on social media. New Media & Society, 20(12), 4492-4511. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818776611
• Hall, C. M. (2011). Publish and perish? Bibliometric analysis, journal ranking and the assessment of research quality in tourism. Tourism Management, 32(1), 16–27. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.tourman.2010.07.001.
• Hosseinmardi, H., Ghasemian, A., Clauset, A., Mobius, M., Rothschild, D. M., & Watts, D. J. (2021). Examining the consumption of radical content on YouTube. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(32), e2101967118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101967118.
• Klepper, D. & O’Brien, M. (2022 , December, 4). As Musk is learning, content moderation is a messy job. A .P. News. https://apnews.com/article/kanye-westelon-musk-twitter-inc-entertainment-technology-0bf6e0ab969a60cd38abd9358ee5fd47
• Koseoglu, M.A., Rahimi, R., Okumus, F., & Liu, J. (2016). Bibliometric studies in tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 61, 180–198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2016.10.006.
• Levy, S. (2022, September, 23) Bogus Fears of Censorship Could Spell the End of Content Moderation’. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/plaintext-bogus-fears-of-censorship-could-spell-the-end-of-content-moderation/
• Lim, W.M. & Kumar, S. (2024). Guidelines for interpreting the results of bibliometric analysis: A sensemaking approach. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 43(2), 17–26. https://doi.org/10.1002/joe.22229.
• Liu, Y., Yildirim, P., & John Zhang, Z. (2022). Implications of revenue models and technology for content moderation strategies. Marketing Science, 41(4), 403–419. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2022.1361.
• Maheshwari, S. (2023, March, 23) ‘What to Know About Today’s Congressional Hearing on TikTok’. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/23/technology/tiktok-congresshearing.html
• MSNBC (2021, February, 21) ‘Why Content Moderation Costs Social Media Companies Billions’. [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBZoVpmbwPk
• Özbudun, S.Y. (2022, October, 16)‘ Basında sansür yasası ve Türkiye’yi bekleyen ihtimaller’. Politikyol. https://www.politikyol.com/basinda-sansur-yasasi-ve-turkiyeyi-bekleyen-ihtimaller/
• Page, M. J., McKenzie, J. E., Bossuyt, P. M., Boutron, I., Hoffmann, T. C., Mulrow, C. D., Shamseer, L., Tetzlaf, J.M., Akl, E.A., Brennan S.E., Chou, R., Glanville, J., Grimshaw, J.M., Hróbjartsson, A., Lalu M.M., Li, T., Loder, E.W., Mayo-Wilson, E., McDonald, S… & Moher, D. (2021). The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. bmj, 372. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n71
• Phillips, T. (2024, August, 31). X goes offline in Brazil after Elon Musk’s refusal to comply with local laws. The Guardian. https://theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/ aug/31/x-offline-brazil-elon-musk
• Perrin, A. and Atske, S. (2021, March, 26) ‘About three-in-ten U.S. adults say they are “almost constantly” online’, Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/shortreads/2021/03/26/about-three-in-ten-u-s-adults-say-they-are-almost-constantly-online/
• Pritchard, A. (1969). Statistical bibliography or bibliometrics? Journal of Documentation, 24, 348–349.
• Sato, M. (2022, April, 14). Buying Twitter ‘is not a way to make money,’ says Musk in TED interview. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/14/23025343/elon-musk-twitter-takeover-ted-talk-quote-stock-buyout.
• Scarcella, M. (2024, September, 4). Elon Musk's X wins appeal to block part of California content moderation law. Reuters. https://w w w.reuters.com/legal/elon-musks-x-wins-appeal-block-part-california-content-moderation-law-2024-09-04/
• Suzor, N.P., West, S. M., Quodling, A., & York, J. (2019). What do we mean when we talk about transparency? toward meaningful transparency in commercial content moderation. International Journal of Communication, 1526 – 1543. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/9736
• Tangalakis-Lippert, K. (2022, November, 7). While Elon Musk said 'comedy is now legal' following his acquisition of Twitter, jokes about the new owner and criticism over his takeover are getting users blocked and suspended. Business Insider. https://businessinsider.com/musk-said- comedy-now-legal-twitter-jokes-getting-users-suspended-2022-11
• Traister, R. (2008, April, 14). Hey, Obama boys: Back off already! Salon. https://salon.com/2008/04/14/obama_supporters/
• Treisman, R. (2024, March, 26). Meta is limiting how much political content users see. Here's how to opt out of that. NPR. https://npr.org/2024/03/26/1240737627/meta-limit-political-content-instagram-facebook-opt-out
• Tüfekçi, Z. (2018, March, 10) ‘YouTube, the great radicalizer’, New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/opinion/sunday/youtube-politics-radical.html
• Veglis, A. (2014). Moderation techniques for social media content. In G. Meiselwitz (Ed.), Social Computing and Social Media (pp. 137-148). Cham: Springer International Publishing.(Lecture Notes in Computer Science). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07632-4_13
• West, S. M. (2018). Censored, suspended, shadowbanned: User interpretations of content moderation on social media platforms. New Media & Society, 4366 – 4383. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818773059
• Wike, R. Silver L. Fetterolf, J. Huang, C. Austin, S. Clancy, L and Gubbala, S. (2022, December, 6).‘Social Media Seen as Mostly Good for Democracy Across Many Nations, But U.S. is a Major Outlier’. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2022/12/06/social-media-seen-as-mostly-good-for-democracy-across-many-nationsbut-u-s-is-a-major-outlier/
• Zupic, I. & Čater, T. (2015). Bibliometric methods in management and organization. Organizational Research Methods, 18(3), 429–472. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428114562629