Content Moderators have been in the news recently, including being discussed at the Senate hearing last week. But what does a Content Moderator actually do?
In this article, we look at the varied role they support and the potential impacts on their wellbeing.
Content Moderator Responsibilities
The standard responsibilities and duties of a content moderator typically include:
- Content Review – Reviewing user-generated content, including text, images, videos, and audio, to ensure it complies with community guidelines, terms of service, and legal requirements.
- Policy Enforcement – Enforcing platform policies by identifying and removing content that violates community guidelines, such as hate speech, explicit material, harassment, or misinformation. Moderators must enforce platform policies consistently and fairly, which can be challenging when interpreting ambiguous or borderline content that may not clearly violate guidelines.
- Risk Assessment – Assessing the potential risks associated with diverse types of egregious and non-egregious content, such as the likelihood of harm to users, legal implications, or damage to the platform’s reputation.
- User Communication – Communicating with users regarding content moderation decisions, providing explanations or instructions for policy violations, and handling user appeals or complaints. Moderators provide explanations or reconsidering actions when warranted while balancing user rights and platform policies.
- Issue Escalation – Escalating complex or sensitive issues to senior moderators, managers, or legal teams for further review and action when necessary.
- Data Analysis – Analyzing trends in user-generated content, identifying patterns of abusive behavior or policy violations, and providing insights to improve moderation processes or policies.
- Community Management – Engaging with the platform’s community to foster a positive and safe environment, answering user questions, and addressing concerns related to content moderation.
- Training and Development – Participating in ongoing training programs to stay updated on platform policies, legal requirements, and best practices for content moderation, to ensure moderators are equipped to handle evolving challenges.
- Fast Paced & High Volume – Dealing with a high volume of content can be overwhelming, requiring moderators to efficiently prioritize and process many submissions within tight timeframes.
- Maintaining Documentation – Documenting moderation actions, decisions, and communications with users to ensure transparency and accountability.
- Collaboration – Collaborating with cross-functional teams, including legal, product, engineering, and customer support teams, to address content moderation challenges and improve platform safety measures.
- Emerging Crisis Response – Moderators must be prepared to respond quickly to emergent issues such as viral misinformation, coordinated harassment campaigns, or live-streamed violence, which may require swift and decisive action to mitigate harm.
- Self-Care and Support – Reviewing sensitive or disturbing content, including graphic violence, explicit material, hate speech, and self-harm, can take an emotional toll on moderators and require coping strategies to manage the psychological impact. Practicing self-care strategies and seeking support from colleagues or mental health resources to manage the emotional toll of moderating sensitive or disturbing content.
By fulfilling these responsibilities, Content Moderators play a critical role in maintaining the integrity, safety, and trustworthiness of online platforms, contributing to a positive user experience and a healthy online community.
Essential Skills and Qualities of Content Moderators
Content moderation is a demanding role that requires a combination of skills, qualities, and attributes to effectively manage the challenges of moderating user-generated content.
Here are some essential skills and qualities for Content Moderators:
Empathy and Emotional Resilience
At Zevo, we believe this is the most important quality that Content Moderators need to be able to deal with from the daily onslaught of egregious content. Dealing with sensitive or disturbing content can take an emotional toll on moderators, so empathy and emotional resilience are crucial for maintaining mental wellbeing and providing support to users in distress. Resilience can be taught, improved, and maintained over time with support and training, especially through emotional regulation, peer support and developing problem solving skills.
Attention to Detail
Moderators need to carefully review and analyze content for policy violations, requiring a keen eye for detail to identify subtle cues or indicators of problematic material.
Strong Communication Skills
Clear and effective communication is essential for conveying moderation decisions to users, collaborating with team members, and escalating issues to senior staff or other departments.
Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving
Moderators must apply critical thinking skills to assess complex content issues, make informed decisions, and respond appropriately to emergent challenges or policy ambiguities.
Cultural Sensitivity and Diversity Awareness
Understanding cultural nuances and diverse perspectives is important for moderating content in a global context and avoiding unintentional biases or misinterpretations.
Adaptability and Flexibility
Content moderation environments are dynamic and constantly evolving, so moderators must be adaptable and flexible in responding to changing priorities, policies, and emergent issues.
Ethical Integrity
Upholding ethical standards and integrity is essential for maintaining user trust and credibility in moderation decisions, even when faced with difficult or controversial content.
Tech Savviness
Comfort with technology and proficiency in using moderation tools and platforms is essential for efficiently processing content submissions and navigating moderation workflows.
Time Management and Prioritization
With a high volume of content to moderate, moderators must effectively manage their time, prioritize tasks, and maintain productivity to meet moderation goals and deadlines.
Teamwork and Collaboration
Content moderation often involves working closely with cross-functional teams, so strong teamwork and collaboration skills are necessary for communicating effectively, sharing insights, and resolving issues collectively.
Respect for User Rights and Privacy
Moderators must respect user rights and privacy while enforcing platform policies, ensuring that moderation actions are proportionate and respectful of user autonomy and dignity.
Continuous Learning and Adaptation
Staying updated on industry trends, emerging threats, and best practices for content moderation requires a commitment to continuous learning and adaptation to effectively address evolving challenges.
By possessing these skills and qualities, Content Moderators can effectively navigate the complexities of moderating user-generated content while upholding platform safety, user trust, and community standards.
