Opinion | Spotify row shows how moderation can play a role in stopping online abuse, Covid-19 misinformation

Scientists and health care workers are calling on platforms to do more to combat harassment and misinformation as the pandemic enters its third year

While there are genuine concerns, we must take care to preserve the discourse and not quash people’s passion and engagement

Reading Time:4 minutes

Hundreds of scientists and medical professionals recently petitioned Spotify demanding that it tackle Covid-19 misinformation. Photo: Reuters

Published: 9:30am, 11 Feb 2022

As the Year of the Tiger gets under way, public health professionals are starting to bare their claws over the state of online discourse. The science journal Nature recently published a comment piece expressing concern about social media abuse experienced by scientists during the pandemic, calling on platforms to do more.

This followed a letter from hundreds of scientists and medical professionals to the music and podcasting service Spotify demanding it tackle Covid-19 misinformation. Concerns over online harassment and misinformation are not new, but discontent seems to be reaching fever pitch.

In 2015, my postgraduate thesis at the University of Hong Kong examined two main approaches to moderating content in online mental health communities. The first approach was one principally of deleting content and banning users, labelled “negative moderation”, a reference to essayist Isaiah Berlin’s concept of negative liberty.

The second approach of “positive moderation” – not in the glib sense of happiness but of something that is additive – refers to one based on balancing out disagreeable content through reasoned criticism and contextualisation.

The thesis argued that, in communities trying to further knowledge and improve discourse, positive forms of moderation must take precedence over blocks and bans. Today, the idea of a clear distinction between negative and positive approaches looks simplistic, with social media platforms increasingly using warning labels and fact-checkers.

These can sometimes seem arbitrary and lacking in transparency, but they serve a purpose of moderating exchanges without entirely shutting them down. It would improve public trust if appointed fact-checkers were independent organisations rather than news outlets.

Opinion | Spotify row shows how moderation can play a role in stopping online abuse, Covid-19 misinformation

Scientists and health care workers are calling on platforms to do more to combat harassment and misinformation as the pandemic enters its third year While there are genuine concerns, we must take care to preserve the discourse and not quash people’s passion and engagement

Scientists and health care workers are calling on platforms to do more to combat harassment and misinformation as the pandemic enters its third year

While there are genuine concerns, we must take care to preserve the discourse and not quash people’s passion and engagement