Platform Governance Survey: A Global Study of Public Attitudes Towards Content Moderation

• Duration: 2022 – 2024
• Project lead: Dr. Dennis Redecker

Head: Dr. Dennis Redeker

Funding: Swiss Federal Office at Communications (OFCOM)

Social media platforms such as Facebook, X and TikTok are the “new governors” (Klonick) or “custodians” (Gillespie) of the Internet. The way in which they moderate global online communication has an impact on the communication practices of billions of people and can determine the success or failure of social movements or be a decisive risk factor for human rights violations. These platforms are increasingly joined by states, international organizations, civil society and journalists in defining and interpreting the boundaries of online speech, whether through laws, guidelines or by helping platforms distinguish misinformation from legitimate content. However, questions are increasingly being raised about the legitimacy of these emerging rules and the underlying decision-making processes for online communication. However, there is little empirical evidence on the attitudes of social media users towards the question of who should be entrusted with which role in content moderation.

The research project at ZeMKI aims to collect relevant public opinion data as part of the Platform Governance Survey. The survey is aimed at users of major social media platforms and is designed to shed light on attitudes and preferences regarding content moderation. The project focuses on countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, but also allows for a comparison with public opinion in Europe. A quantitative survey was conducted in 41 countries between late 2022 and March 2023, in six different languages. The analysis will highlight country-specific, gender and age-related differences and discuss, for example, in which countries social media users are more inclined to accept a stronger role for the state in content moderation.