Content Moderation by Design (CMbD) Card Game Extension Pack Creation
Content Moderation by Design (CMbD) Card Game Extension Pack Creation
Submitter: Anna Lenhart, University Of Maryland College Park, alenhart@terpmail.umd.edu
Abstract:
The Content Moderation by Design (CMbD) Game is a “serious game” designed to build understanding of the complex debates surrounding online content moderation, and empathy for the participants in online content moderation. By playing the role of both a startup social media platform policy team and a content moderator, participants begin to experience some of the challenges associated with moderating user generated online content in a way that balances values such as free expression and community safety. There are three rounds to the game: first players work as a team to develop the policy that will help shape the kind of platform they want to grow. Then players switch roles to a content moderator, where they’ll use the policies to make decisions, based on cards that provide real life examples (content cards). Finally, players see how decisions play out, calculating final scores based on real life examples of moderation decisions, and how those decisions affect two areas: free expression and community safety (event cards). Players are also asked to add nuance to existing social media policies by creating an “extension pack.” As designed, the pilot game is premised on US policy, and all of the examples are drawn from the US context. This making and doing session would allow participants from around the globe to create an “extension pack” with examples of content and event cards inspired by their culture, background and expertise. As content moderation is a global challenge, extending the game through a participatory making and doing session will inspire new conversations about global policy and values differences and intersections.
Areas of STS Scholarship: Information, Computing and Media Technology, Science communication, Governance and Public Policy
Authors/Participants: Anna Lenhart, University Of Maryland College Park
Sarah Gilbert, Cornell
Katie Shilton, University of Maryland, College Park
