Saturday, November 26, 2022

A Proposal to Replace (Most) Content Moderation with Profile Matching


Content moderation has long been a thorny issues for social media. Nobody likes how it works (or doesn't work) today, and the stricter and less well-defined rules and "norms" on newer platforms like Fediverse/Mastodon and Counter Social just make this more contentious. I have a radical proposal...

Let's replace (most) content moderation with "Profile Matching." Yes, Profile Matching sounds like the way dating sites work, and that's intentional. Here's how it would work...

Everyone's account profile contains two rather long checklists - one is a list of subjects they want excluded from their timeline, and the other is a list of subjects they Post messages about. By default a new account would be marked as both posting and accepting most subjects, with a very few subjects like NSFW images defaulting to not posted and not accepted. Of course the account owner is encouraged to customize both lists.

As an example, an account that excluded #Politics posts, would not see any posts on their timeline from accounts that stated they posted about politics.

There would also be the ability when Posting to override the account setting, such as an account that seldom posted about politics making a single political post, or a politics account posting a cute cat photo and wanting to reach a wider audience.

Content moderation would consist of two functions:
1) Warn and quickly suspend accounts that post ILLEGAL content. (Illegal in the strict sense of breaking laws, such as child porn, libel/defamation, or copyright infringement)
2) MARK accounts that post types of content they said they wouldn't post. For example, FORCE an account to be marked #Politics is it makes political posts without having that checked on the profile.

Here are a few EXAMPLES of the many subjects to be on the "I Post" and the Exclude ("I don't want to view") checklists... There could also be sub-subjects, so someone could view Politics in general, but exclude Anti-Democratic Politics. These examples are from an American's perspective, but of course the post/exclude lists need to be globally applicable. The lists will need to be added-to over time. Whenever a new subject is added, the defaults would be "I Post" this, and I Don't Exclude this subject.

#Food
 Images of food
 Animal-based food

#BodyImage
 Dieting
 Weight reduction

#CurrentEvents
 Government
 Natural Disasters
 War
 Famine/Starvation
 Climate

#Politics
 Pro-Democratic Politics
 Pro-Republican Politics
 Anti-Democratic Politics
 Anti-Republican Politics
 Requests for political donations
 ...

#Religion
 Christianity
 Atheism
 ...

#Pro-LGBTQ+
#Anti-LGBTQ+

#Pro-Choice
#Anti-Choice ("pro-life")

#Mainstream-Science

#Anti-Mainstream-Science
 Anti-Vaccination

# Advertising, Solicitation (other than political)



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