The Key to Maintaining Free Speech on Social Media: Transparent Moderation, with Shagun Jhaver

Summary: Online communities like Reddit or Twitter act like town halls, where opinions are shared and everyone, in theory, has a voice. Only, it doesn’t always work like that. What was once optimistically viewed as a solution to public discourse, offering promises of open and logical discussions where anyone with a keyboard and an internet connection could speak their piece, has instead become a bit of a Wild West. Message boards have degraded into sources of harassment, misinformation, radicalization, and more. The question is: How can you moderate, while also maintaining the promise of free speech? How can you avoid discouraging posters whose content was moderated or removed, while encouraging them to remain a part of public discourse?