Affiliation:
1. University of Florida, USA
Abstract
Contemporary research on social media looks different than it did in the late 2010s, with users facing a high-choice social media environment as new platforms emerge. Subsequently, alt-right sites have experienced a rise in users—sometimes those who have experienced content moderation by traditional social media sites. As such, scholars have investigated the impact of this content moderation (e.g. de-platforming) on users and the content posted on new alt-right platforms. This work seeks to expand extant research through analyzing a survey of Gab, Parler (now defunct), Truth Social, and Rumble users ( N = 427) who have experienced content moderation on other social media sites. While we find that those temporarily or permanently banned from traditional sites are unlikely to leave the platform altogether for a right-wing alternative social media (RWASM) site, there are active users on these sites worth studying.
Reference48 articles.
1. Anderson M (2021) Americans divided on whether Trump should be permanently banned from social media. Pew Research Center. Available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/05/05/americans-divided-on-whether-trump-should-be-permanently-banned-from-social-media/
2. The Emotional and Financial Impact of De-Platforming on Creators at the Margins
3. The challenges of responding to misinformation during a pandemic: content moderation and the limitations of the concept of harm
4. Bond S (2022) Elon Musk allows Donald Trump back on Twitter. NPR, 19 November. Available at: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/19/1131351535/elon-musk-allows-donald-trump-back-on-twitter
5. How Do Individuals in a Radical Echo Chamber React to Opposing Views? Evidence from a Content Analysis of Stormfront