Free speech vs. harmful misinformation: Moral dilemmas in online content moderation

Social media companies face moral dilemmas between two values — freedom of expression and preventing harm from false information — when they decide whether to remove posts containing dangerous misinformation and whether to suspend accounts that spread such falsehoods. In this study, we used a conjoint survey experiment to explore how people (U.S. respondents, N = 2564) approach these moral dilemmas across four disinformation topics: politics (election denial), health (COVID-19 anti-vaccination), history (Holocaust denial), and environment (climate change denial). In this talk, I will present results of this study and discuss which factors contribute to people’s wiliness to censor false and misleading information online.

Zoom link: https://eur-nl.zoom.us/j/95257674858?pwd=KzFCYklXTzJPZVp2VlJiTk9IZ215Zz09

Meeting ID: 952 5767 4858