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Politics of deliberate inaction: the disconnect between platform justifications and user imaginaries on content moderation in a ‘free speech’ online forum
Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5028-0408
2025 (English)In: New Media and Society, ISSN 1461-4448, E-ISSN 1461-7315, Vol. 27, no 3, p. 1235-1255Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This article analyses the ‘free speech’ online forum Flashback, which adheres to a strict non-interference policy when it comes to user-generated content, but beyond this also forbids users from deleting their own content or accounts. Through a qualitative content analysis, this article sought to understand the relationship between the platform and its users with respect to this unconventional approach to moderation and content removal. This article discusses both the position(s) taken by Flashback as it pertains to its policy of minimal moderation, and the expectations as expressed by users navigating Flashbacks rules and their practical implementations. The article shows a discrepancy between how Flashback (incoherently) justifies minimal moderation and how users had imagined the platform operating. The article also discusses how Flashback maintains these policies through its community’s active encouragement via supportive posting and silencing of non-conformers, and the consequences that Flashback’s inaction has in terms of residual hate.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sage Publications, 2025. Vol. 27, no 3, p. 1235-1255
Keywords [en]
Content moderation, digital platforms, free speech, hate speech, online discussion forums, Sweden, user-generated content
National Category
Media and Communication Studies Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-214507DOI: 10.1177/14614448231190905ISI: 001079694200001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105002158684OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-214507DiVA, id: diva2:1800622
Available from: 2023-09-27 Created: 2023-09-27 Last updated: 2025-04-29Bibliographically approved

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Åkerlund, Mathilda

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