Facts and Where to Find Them: Empirical Research on Internet Platforms and Content Moderation

We live in an era of increasing worry that internet platforms like Facebook or Twitter, which mediate our online speech, are also fomenting hatred, spreading misinformation, and distorting political outcomes. The 2016 US presidential election, in particular, unleashed a torrent of concern about platform-borne harms. Policymakers around the world have called for laws requiring platforms to do more to combat illegal and even merely “harmful” content. Reliable information about platforms’ content-removal systems was, for many years, hard to come by, but data and disclosures are steadily emerging as researchers focus on the topic and platforms ramp up their transparency efforts. This chapter reviews major sources of information released by platforms, as well as independent research concerning content-takedown operations.