Can democracy work on the internet? Reddit tells a mixed story

OTI policy director Sharon Bradford Franklin was quoted in the Los Angeles Times on Reddit's decentralized approach to content moderation, explaining both its advantages and drawbacks.

Reddit’s decentralized approach to moderation can promote free speech and self-governance, said Sharon Bradford Franklin, policy director at New America’s Open Technology Institute. “This approach means that niche communities specific to certain cultures or interests can flourish, but this includes making a space for communities dedicated to hatred, conspiracy theories, and other harmful content,” she added via email.

Outsourcing moderation responsibility also means the company “may be less accountable to react in real time in situations where there is harmful content proliferating on the platform,” Franklin continued.

Similar problems can arise on other platforms that let users organize sub-communities; far-right militias and the QAnon conspiracy have used Facebook groups to organize and communicate among themselves, for instance.