Deplatforming, Deconstructed. A Typology for Technology Platforms
MADDOX ANGERHOFER, KRISTINA CARY, BILVA CHANDRA, IDO WULKAN Deplatforming works!
2/12 DEFINING DEPLATFORMING TYPOLOG
1. COMMUNITY 2. OFFICIAL PAGE 3. PUBLIC FIGURE TAKEDOWN REMOVAL ACCOUNT An entire community The official page of SUSPENSION of users within a an organization is A controversial platform are taken down and their public figure is disenfranchised content may be banned from using a without being blocked from the particular platform. banned from using platform. the platform.
3/12 COMMUNITY TAKEDOWN: 2015 REDDIT CASE OVERVIEW In June of 2015, Reddit banned problematic subreddit threads of content: FatPeopleHate, HamPlanetHatred, ▰ Tra ns f**s , Ne of**, S***N*****s Sa y, a nd la t e r on in t he year, CoonTown and its associated subreddits. This widespread community ban entirely affected the nature of hate speech on Reddit. ▰ CEO Ellen Pao made a new Reddit content policy change which resulted in this mass takedown--a ban ▰ on “attacks and harassment of individuals.” This community takedown resulted in the decrease of Reddit’s overall hate quotient. ▰
4/12 2015 REDDIT CASE DATA
Mean Hate Speech (automatically-filtered words) ● Decrease in solely hate- speech related content ● User migration to less extreme threads ● 81.08% decrease in the usage of manually filtered hate words by r/ CoonTown users ● Disenfranchisement/disen gagement from the platform The community takedown WORKED, and did not disadvantage the online platform. Reddit also employed these actions efficiently, and proactively removed any copycat threads.
5/12 USER MIGRATION The users of the banned subreddit threads decreased their dissemination of extremist white supremacist ▰ content on Reddit. IMPLICATIONS? But where did they go---Voat. Voat, a sort of demure VOAT SEARCH TRAFFIC version of Reddit and 4chan experienced a major spike in ▰ members after the June 2015 ban, before the site was Date Search overloaded. Traffic Trend of larger-->smaller platform migration
March 17 4.3% ▰
Jun e 1 1 5.8%
July 12 8.4%
August 18 7%
September 6.4% August 18, 2015 Voat search data pointing to Reddit connection.
23 Voat’s Estimated Average Monthly Growth Rate , Based on v/News Follower Numbers Reddit users who were on these banned threads moved to much smaller platforms with less influence, and generally decreasedeir involvement th in spreading extremist content on the Reddit platform. 6/12 Official Page Removal
Content Shared on Gab.ai
removed from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok
Facebook Followers: 1.8 million before removal Gab Followers: 11,000 as of May 2019
December 2017 Caused limited migration and loss of the Deplatforming legitimacy of mainstream platforms
7/12 Official Page Removal
Spin-Off Facebook Group, active as of 04/26/2020
removed from Apple, Spotify, Twitter, Alexa.com Web Traffic Ranking for Infowars.com Youtube, and Facebook
Pre Deplatforming: 1.4 million combined visits and views daily Post Deplatforming: 715,000 combined August 2018 visits and views daily Deplatforming
Cased a significant reduction in content circulation and access 8/12 Public Figure Account Suspension
Left: Milo Yiannopoulos, extreme-right political Follower commentator; Right: Paul Joseph Watson, an English s (in 1K) extreme-right commentator and conspiracy theorist
May 2019 FB Deplatforming
Laura Loomer, an internet personality known Follower for her extreme-right politics and commentary s (in 1K)
November 2018 May 2019 FB Twitter Deplatforming Deplatforming
9/12 Public Figure Account Suspension
Cross platform migration following removal of a public figure’s page appears ▰ to be minor.
A significant loss in following was observed in Yiannopoulos’ and Loomer’s ▰ cases
A small nucleus of followers does appear to migrate following page removal ▰ Internal data is required for more accurate results ▰
10/12 Key Findings:
COMMUNITY TAKEDOWN OFFICIAL PAGE REMOVAL PUBLIC FIGURE ACCOUNT This can result in a decrease in After an initial surge in public SUSPENSION overall hate speech on a interest, large scale migration does Minor to no migration after- platform, without affecting a not occur and organizations lose deplatforming. platform’s business interests. legitimacy. Deplatforming leads to significant Migration occurs, and users loss of following. move to more minute platforms.
11/12 Recommendations for the GIFCT
1. Increased Cooperation and Oversight 2. Transparency Around Standards and Processes 3. Enforcement of Hate Speech Policies 4. Further research, particularly on calculating metrics using internal company data on user activity and secret group membership.
12/12 Q&A