Content moderation refers to the practice of ensuring that all content posted or submitted by users complies with a company’s regulations, and is not illegal or inappropriate in any way. It is a common process across various online platforms that rely on user-generated content. This includes social media sites, forums, dating sites, communities, and other online marketplaces.
There’s more to content moderation than just clicking “Accept” on specific content. If you want to learn more about the whole practice, read up!
7 Things You Should Know About Content Moderation:
This is crucial to maintain a company’s good online reputation
Everyone has something to say and share online, but with the freedom to speak, some people might see this as a way to start hate, abuse, and disinformation in content. It is only reasonable for companies to be heavy-handed in their responses. Why? They wouldn’t want someone breaking the good online reputation they worked so hard to achieve. Plus, it’s not just about them.
There are always troublemakers out there who might not just be out to destroy the company, but also spread content that might be triggering or abusive to other users. Aside from protecting their reputation, they also have the responsibility to make sure the online spaces are safe, and will give all users peace of mind.
Content moderators work hard to make the online world as safe as possible
No matter the industry, one thing is for sure: content moderators are truly commendable for taking on their task! They are responsible for filtering posts and comments online, and making sure those that are abusive, inappropriate, or irrelevant are not brought to light.
Normally, they are given a pre-determined set of guidelines to identify which user-generated content are acceptable.
Not all content moderation work is manual
In this age of technological advancement, you can expect that there is a faster way to moderate content, albeit not always the best route for the business.
Automated moderation refers to the process wherein user-generated content are accepted or approved for posting when it meets the platform’s specific rules and regulations. It is ideal for businesses who want content to be out there as fast as possible, or those who don’t have the bandwidth to have content manually checked by the team. With AI, content is analyzed almost instantly, but there is also a disadvantage to this. In reality, humans are still the best when it comes to reading, interpreting, and understanding data. It also helps that context and subjectivity matter a great deal.
Manual content moderation partnered with automated moderation would be the best combination as it utilizes the technology’s ability to easily and quickly interpret content based on a pre-defined criteria, while giving humans the final judgment. This ensures that all content are up to the required standard.
Content moderation can improve your company’s ways of working
Think about it. The content moderators get to see all user-generated content, so they would know the audience’s sentiments. While they are tasked to maintain a safe space for businesses and enhance their online reputations, they can also use it as a way understand the customers’ pain points. After all, the online world is a good place to learn more about the customers’ interests and experiences.
By carefully reviewing all submitted content, they would see which ones need to be escalated for being a true issue, and disregard those that are simply considered “unnecessary noise.” Once that information is compiled, the company can then strategize how to better their products and services and win more customers!
There are different types of content reviewed by moderators
Did you think that content moderators only review photos? Well, no. Depending on the platform’s focus and the user’s submission, there may be different types of content to be screened by the moderators!
The first one would be text. It is the simplest and easiest type that a user can submit. Content moderators need to look out for inappropriate words (hate, suggestive, abusive, etc.) before approving the post. It can also be tricky because some users would even go out of their way to hide an offensive word in a sequence of seemingly normal words.
Another content analyzed by moderators is image. While this is easier to moderate compared to text due to its visual nature, the moderator still needs to take cultural differences or rules into consideration.
Lastly, videos! You won’t be surprised if we say that videos are everywhere. This type is the hardest to moderate because the moderator needs to watch everything before they have it approved for posting. Add that to the fact that it may also carry the other types of content which are text and image, and is particularly time-consuming.
Patience is the key when reviewing videos.
Content moderation may make or break a company
Unregulated content may be a PR nightmare, or worse, the cause of a company’s downfall. Your customers are always talking, and uploading content at staggering rates. If you leave a damaging content unattended, you might just wake up to lots of harmful or illegal behavior shared through your platform. We’re not just talking about people spamming your comments section about ways to get rich, or inviting others to join contests. It’s about something more inappropriate and harmful, and you don’t want that, do you?
Make sure you do your part in vigilant moderation, while enhancing your customers’ overall experience.
Content moderation is all about maintaining a safe and healthy online environment for all
Some people may say that content moderation is a form of censorship. It’s not. The truth is, you can still practice your freedom to speak. Businesses just make sure it’s not encouraging hate, violence, deceit, or abuse. The platforms exist so you can interact with the business. If you need to raise a certain issue, you can still do so the right way.
Content moderators only care about maintaining a safe and healthy online environment for all.
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