The Bipartisan Case for Labeling as a Content Moderation Method: Findings from a National Survey

Abstract

Social media companies have increasingly been using labeling strategies to identify, highlight, and mark content that may be problematic in some way but not sufficiently violating to justify removing it. Such labeling strategies, which are now being used by most major social platforms, present a host of new challenges and questions. This report, based on a national survey conducted in the U.S. in summer 2021 (N = 1,464), provides new insights into public preferences around social media company policy and interventions in the media environment. It is often assumed that there are highly polarized views about content moderation. However, we find relatively strong, bipartisan support for the basic strategy and general goals of labeling.