Ina Weber, João Gonçalves, Gina M. Masullo, Marisa Torres da Silva, Joep Hofhuis
{"title":"Who Can Say What? Testing the Impact of Interpersonal Mechanisms and Gender on Fairness Evaluations of Content Moderation","authors":"Ina Weber, João Gonçalves, Gina M. Masullo, Marisa Torres da Silva, Joep Hofhuis","doi":"10.1177/20563051241286702","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241286702","url":null,"abstract":"Content moderation is commonly used by social media platforms to curb the spread of hateful content. Yet, little is known about how users perceive this practice and which factors may influence their perceptions. Publicly denouncing content moderation—for example, portraying it as a limitation to free speech or as a form of political targeting—may play an important role in this context. Evaluations of moderation may also depend on interpersonal mechanisms triggered by perceived user characteristics. In this study, we disentangle these different factors by examining how the gender, perceived similarity, and social influence of a user publicly complaining about a content-removal decision influence evaluations of moderation. In an experiment ( n = 1,586) conducted in the United States, the Netherlands, and Portugal, participants witnessed the moderation of a hateful post, followed by a publicly posted complaint about moderation by the affected user. Evaluations of the fairness, legitimacy, and bias of the moderation decision were measured, as well as perceived similarity and social influence as mediators. The results indicate that arguments about freedom of speech significantly lower the perceived fairness of content moderation. Factors such as social influence of the moderated user impacted outcomes differently depending on the moderated user’s gender. We discuss implications of these findings for content-moderation practices.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142718363","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Leyla Dogruel, Dmitri Epstein, Sven Joeckel, Nicholas John
{"title":"Turn It on! Turn It on? Privacy Management of Pupils and Teachers in Online Learning During COVID-19 Lockdowns in Germany and Israel","authors":"Leyla Dogruel, Dmitri Epstein, Sven Joeckel, Nicholas John","doi":"10.1177/20563051241301841","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241301841","url":null,"abstract":"The transition to emergency remote teaching (ERT) through the use of video conferencing software during the COVID-19 lockdowns posed significant challenges to privacy management for both pupils and teachers across the world. One question became pivotal: Must I turn my camera on? While the question of turning on one’s camera has pedagogical consequences, our study sets out to examine the implications for pupils’ and teachers’ privacy. Focusing on a comparative approach, and drawing on communication privacy management and contextual integrity theories, we examine the negotiations over privacy during ERT in high schools in two distinct privacy cultures (Israel and Germany). Based on semi-structured interviews with pupils and teachers ( n = 35) we found that despite substantively different cultural predispositions, legal environments, and rhetorical rationales, the established norms and privacy management strategies related to camera use were strikingly similar among both teachers and students in the two countries.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"198 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142718400","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Becoming Spectral: Toward a Media History of Ghosting","authors":"Torbjörn Rolandsson, Sadie Couture","doi":"10.1177/20563051241301200","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241301200","url":null,"abstract":"This article contextualizes contemporary forms of digital ghosting by examining how two of its historical precursors—Victorian calling culture and answering machines—have been represented in North American women’s magazines. To do so, we develop mediated avoidance as an analytical heuristic. This concept captures the material, relational and social dimensions of a set of understudied media practices that seek to strategically engage with the gaps that are inherent in all communication, to defer, deflect, or disrupt mediated connections. Representations of mediated avoidance from respective eras were found to reflect different anxieties over the management of the public/private divide. Calling culture relied on unpaid labor to facilitate the transmission of printed messages between bourgeoise women and was constrained by an array of social protocols that regulated interactions along conceptions of propriety. The disconnective features of answering machines, meanwhile, were represented as giving women the upper hand in courtship, as well as providing means for increased productivity and self-care, foreshadowing contemporary justifications of digital disconnection. Concerns over contemporary ghosting are discussed as produced by a spillage of media practices. Ghosting is considered acceptable in feminine-coded spheres like courtship. But it is viewed as inappropriate—sometimes even as signaling a broader social crisis—when it bleeds into other contexts, like when an employee ghosts their employer.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142718194","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Can Social Media Engagement Predict Election Results? Bandwagon Effects of Tweets About US Senate Candidates","authors":"Jinping Wang, S. Shyam Sundar, Nilàm Ram","doi":"10.1177/20563051241298449","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241298449","url":null,"abstract":"The social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has grown to become an important venue for political discourse, with candidates using it integrally in their election campaigns. However, it is not clear if activity on Twitter can be used to forecast elections, given conflicting findings in the literature. By analyzing 830,796 tweets mentioning key hashtags related to nine US senate races in 2014, 2016, and 2018, we demonstrate that cascades in volume and sentiment of tweets between September 1 and Election Day can predict election outcomes. We developed a non-linear growth modeling tool to identify the point in time at which bandwagon support for competing candidates begins to diverge. We also discovered that bot-driven tweets play a negligible role. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for both computational research and media effects, showing the value of combining big-data analysis and longitudinal non-linear dynamics to study the relationship between social media activity and real-world outcomes.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"253 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142684138","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Politicians Under Fire: Citizens’ Incivility Against Political Leaders on Social Media","authors":"Sara Bentivegna, Rossella Rega","doi":"10.1177/20563051241298415","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241298415","url":null,"abstract":"This research uses artificial intelligence and manual content-analysis to examine the diffusion of incivility against political leaders on Twitter during the 2022 Italian election campaign. Using a mixed approach (artificial intelligence and manual content analysis), we examined 22,465 uncivil tweets posted in the 4 weeks before the vote. Results show that hostility toward leaders increases as voting approaches and as candidates’ public visibility grows, and that it affects frontrunner leaders the most. Furthermore, the analysis of the different forms of incivility showed that it changes depending on the target it hits, revealing unexpected aspects: contrary to expectations, incivility against the only female leader (Giorgia Meloni) are not “sexist attacks” but forms of demonization (i.e., association with figures/symbols concerning totalitarian regimes); while against Giuseppe Conte, accusations of “illegality,” lies and “misinformation” prevail, that is, the same kind of incivility that he and his party use against opponents. Finally, we found that the authors of uncivil attacks are mainly ordinary/sporadic users, with all the consequences that this implies in terms of a normalization of incivility in public debate.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142684144","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Queerness and Mental Health in India: An Intersectional Approach to Sensitive Social Media Disclosures","authors":"Annika Pinch, Jeremy Birnholtz, Jatin Chaudary, Preeti Tripathi, Shruta Rawat, Alpana Dange, Rachel Kornfield","doi":"10.1177/20563051241302145","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241302145","url":null,"abstract":"Despite the growing body of research on people disclosing sensitive details about their identities or experiences online, few studies have focused on how individuals with intersecting stigmas manage these disclosures. Those facing multiple, overlapping sources of discrimination may encounter compounded challenges, which can complicate their assessment of the perceived benefits and risks of disclosure. This study seeks to understand disclosure among individuals with intersecting stigmas by examining how queer-identifying individuals in Mumbai, India, navigate the intersection of queerness and mental health disclosures on social media. Based on qualitative findings from 35 interviews, we identify three key factors that can further enhance existing disclosure frameworks. First, the perceived risk of disclosure can be amplified by intersecting sources of stigma, such that people may be particularly wary of disclosing at all, and especially on social media. Second, the importance of community support and resources for those with intersecting stigmas can increase their focus on the communal benefits of disclosure. Third, prior experiences with disclosing stigma on particular social platforms can affect the perceived safety of disclosing on those platforms and influence the strategies used. We discuss the implications of these findings and suggest areas for further investigation to develop a more comprehensive disclosure framework for those with intersecting stigmas.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142673885","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chelsea A. Allen, Zuleka R. Henderson, Jalana Harris, Rae L. Chang, Errica L. Williams, Courtney D. Cogburn
{"title":"Telehealth “Verzuz” Radical Telehealing: Reimagining Social Media as Virtual Healing Spaces for Black Communities","authors":"Chelsea A. Allen, Zuleka R. Henderson, Jalana Harris, Rae L. Chang, Errica L. Williams, Courtney D. Cogburn","doi":"10.1177/20563051241293623","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241293623","url":null,"abstract":"Evidence suggests that the conception of “mental health,” as well as Western health care models, needs to be reimagined to better reflect the unique care needs of Black people. Within these systems, Black people are more likely to experience secondary victimization and retraumatization. Despite these systemic failings, Black people often find ways to manage self-care, wellness, and healing. Within the context of dueling pandemics (COVID-19 and racial injustice), Black people turned to social media applications to develop community-led, culturally-congruent care models. This study aims to explore the ways Black people experienced virtual engagements on social media during the dueling pandemics. This exploratory study employed a six-phase thematic analysis approach, while utilizing publicly available textual data (Instagram comments) from two key social media engagements targeting Black audiences. Prominent themes gleaned from this analysis elucidate the healing and therapeutic value of these virtual gatherings. These include: (1) Expression of Gratitude and Appreciation, (2) Necessity, (3) Timeliness, (4) Accessibility, (5) Emotional and Spiritual Impact of the Virtual Space, (6) Ancestral and Culturally-Grounded Healing Practices, (7) Reprieve within the Virtual Space, and (8) Community and Collectivism. Our analysis reveals that when elaborating on their experience participating in two key social media engagements targeting Black audiences, attendees’ responses reflect key aspects of empirically-grounded, culturally-congruent care models for Black people (i.e., radical healing). We contend our findings demonstrate the unique ways social media applications might be more intentionally leveraged to create culturally-congruent care for Black people.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142673882","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Delia Cristina Balaban, Maria Mustățea, Valeriu Frunzaru
{"title":"Understanding the Motivations of Young Adults to Engage in Privacy Protection Behavior While Setting Up Smartphone Apps: A Cross-Country Comparison Between Romania and Germany","authors":"Delia Cristina Balaban, Maria Mustățea, Valeriu Frunzaru","doi":"10.1177/20563051241298446","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241298446","url":null,"abstract":"Smartphones have become daily companions and store many personal information, including contact lists, photos, and videos. Even though users download smartphone apps for various purposes, they are also data collection instruments. Within the Protection Motivation Theory research streamline, the present research focuses from a comparative perspective on young adults’ concerns and engagement with privacy protection behaviors while setting up smartphone apps. Aiming to assess how threat and coping appraisals relate to privacy protection behavior from a comparative perspective, we conducted an online survey ( N = 931) in Germany ( n = 479) and Romania ( n = 452) with young adults (age 18–26 years). Findings showed differences between the two countries in the sense that individuals’ overarching privacy attitudes transfer to and manifest in the context-specific behavior of setting up apps. For German young adults, susceptibility and severity of the data collection by companies are positively related to privacy protection behavior while setting up apps. Romanians are confident that they can protect their data by setting up apps. For German and Romanian young adults, self-efficacy in online communication was related to response efficacy of privacy protection while configuring apps.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"57 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142673925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rys Farthing, Katja Koren Ošljak, Teki Akuetteh, Kadian Camacho, Genevieve Smith-Nunes, Jun Zhao
{"title":"Online Privacy, Young People, and Datafication: Different Perceptions About Online Privacy Across Antigua & Barbuda, Australia, Ghana, and Slovenia","authors":"Rys Farthing, Katja Koren Ošljak, Teki Akuetteh, Kadian Camacho, Genevieve Smith-Nunes, Jun Zhao","doi":"10.1177/20563051241298042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241298042","url":null,"abstract":"Children and young people’s online privacy is increasingly challenged by the datafication of the digital world, and this is an increasingly important area of policy concern. Understanding what young people understand online privacy to be, and what they want done to protect it, is key to creating effective and rights-realizing policy responses. This article explores young people’s perceptions across four countries and finds they have nuanced understandings about online privacy and clear, robust ideas about how to improve it. Context mattered, and their online privacy concerns and ideal protections were often informed by their socio-political context and awareness of and trust in datafication.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"95 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142601945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The AI Chatbot Always Flirts With Me, Should I Flirt Back: From the McDonaldization of Friendship to the Robotization of Love","authors":"Bibo Lin","doi":"10.1177/20563051241296229","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241296229","url":null,"abstract":"How is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, such as machine learning (ML) algorithms and Large Language Models (LLMs), in social chatbots transforming friendship and love? This study investigates Replika, an app offering AI friends and/or lovers to users. Unlike most AI companion research grounded in Human-Machine Interaction (HMI) and interpersonal communication theories, this study employs the sociological concept of McDonaldization to interrogate broader social and cultural implications of Replika. I argue that McDonaldization offers a systematic framework to understand the fast friendship and fast love provided by social chatbots while accounting for its limits in addressing the personalization enabled by emerging AI technologies. To bridge the conceptual gap, I propose the term “Robotization of Love,” pointing to the merging of efficient, quantifiable, predictable, and controllable love and algorithmically personalized love. The Robotization of Love also underscores the growing significance of robotic elements in shaping our affection and sociality.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"69 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2024-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142597060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}