At the growing intersections of social media and critical disability studies, limited empirical research exists on the role of digital platforms in expressing and constructing neurodivergent identity among subpopulations that additionally belong to other minoritized groups. This study critically intervenes by mapping how what we term “marginalized neurodivergence” is digitally constructed, using the case of young neurodivergent members of the global South Asian (SA) diaspora on TikTok (SANT). We conducted a thematic analysis of 100 TikTok videos posted by SANT from 2020 to 2024 about their lived experiences of autism and/or ADHD, employing dual theoretical and conceptual lenses: the psychosocialcultural framework from counseling psychology and platform affordances from digital studies. Findings indicate that TikTok serves as a forum for SANT to explore overlapping psychological, social, and cultural concerns that may otherwise not be discussed within SA or neurodivergent communities. Although these issues exist outside of TikTok for SANT, the platform’s affordances allow for social, communicative, and expressive possibilities that in turn shape the creation, consumption, and circulation of such content. This study has direct implications for informing clinical support around mental health and disability among marginalized communities, as well as understandings of how digital platforms potentially serve as a mediating factor.
{"title":"Digitally Constructing Marginalized Neurodivergence: Understanding South Asian Diasporic Autism and ADHD Communities on TikTok","authors":"Meryl Alper, Sadia Ehsan Cheema, Zubin DeVitre, Snehaa Ram","doi":"10.1177/20563051251406149","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251406149","url":null,"abstract":"At the growing intersections of social media and critical disability studies, limited empirical research exists on the role of digital platforms in expressing and constructing neurodivergent identity among subpopulations that additionally belong to other minoritized groups. This study critically intervenes by mapping how what we term “marginalized neurodivergence” is digitally constructed, using the case of young neurodivergent members of the global South Asian (SA) diaspora on TikTok (SANT). We conducted a thematic analysis of 100 TikTok videos posted by SANT from 2020 to 2024 about their lived experiences of autism and/or ADHD, employing dual theoretical and conceptual lenses: the psychosocialcultural framework from counseling psychology and platform affordances from digital studies. Findings indicate that TikTok serves as a forum for SANT to explore overlapping psychological, social, and cultural concerns that may otherwise not be discussed within SA or neurodivergent communities. Although these issues exist outside of TikTok for SANT, the platform’s affordances allow for social, communicative, and expressive possibilities that in turn shape the creation, consumption, and circulation of such content. This study has direct implications for informing clinical support around mental health and disability among marginalized communities, as well as understandings of how digital platforms potentially serve as a mediating factor.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"45 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145717471","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-09DOI: 10.1177/20563051251405069
Andreas Jungherr, Adrian Rauchfleisch
Recent advances in generative AI have raised public awareness, shaping expectations and concerns about their societal implications. Central to these debates is the question of AI alignment—how well AI systems meet public expectations regarding safety, fairness, and social values. However, little is known about what people expect from AI-enabled systems and how these expectations differ across national contexts. We present evidence from two surveys of public preferences for key functional features of AI-enabled systems in Germany ( n = 1800) and the United States ( n = 1756). We examine support for four types of alignment in AI moderation: accuracy and reliability, safety, bias mitigation, and the promotion of aspirational imaginaries. U.S. respondents report significantly higher AI use and consistently greater support for all alignment features, reflecting broader technological openness and higher societal involvement with AI. In both countries, accuracy and safety enjoy the strongest support, while more normatively charged goals—like fairness and aspirational imaginaries—receive more cautious backing, particularly in Germany. We also explore how individual experience with AI, attitudes toward free speech, political ideology, partisan affiliation, and gender shape these preferences. AI use and free speech support explain more variation in Germany. In contrast, U.S. responses show greater attitudinal uniformity, suggesting that higher exposure to AI may consolidate public expectations. These findings contribute to debates on AI governance and cross-national variation in public preferences.
{"title":"Public Opinion on the Politics of AI Alignment: Cross-National Evidence on Expectations for AI Moderation From Germany and the United States","authors":"Andreas Jungherr, Adrian Rauchfleisch","doi":"10.1177/20563051251405069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251405069","url":null,"abstract":"Recent advances in generative AI have raised public awareness, shaping expectations and concerns about their societal implications. Central to these debates is the question of AI alignment—how well AI systems meet public expectations regarding safety, fairness, and social values. However, little is known about what people expect from AI-enabled systems and how these expectations differ across national contexts. We present evidence from two surveys of public preferences for key functional features of AI-enabled systems in Germany ( <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">n</jats:italic> = 1800) and the United States ( <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">n</jats:italic> = 1756). We examine support for four types of alignment in AI moderation: accuracy and reliability, safety, bias mitigation, and the promotion of aspirational imaginaries. U.S. respondents report significantly higher AI use and consistently greater support for all alignment features, reflecting broader technological openness and higher societal involvement with AI. In both countries, accuracy and safety enjoy the strongest support, while more normatively charged goals—like fairness and aspirational imaginaries—receive more cautious backing, particularly in Germany. We also explore how individual experience with AI, attitudes toward free speech, political ideology, partisan affiliation, and gender shape these preferences. AI use and free speech support explain more variation in Germany. In contrast, U.S. responses show greater attitudinal uniformity, suggesting that higher exposure to AI may consolidate public expectations. These findings contribute to debates on AI governance and cross-national variation in public preferences.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"135 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145704141","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-08DOI: 10.1177/20563051251386360
Annalise Baines, Eszter Hargittai, John Palfrey
Social media offer the opportunity for much public discourse, but also come with the potential to spread misinformation far and wide. This study investigates how older adults respond to misinformation on social media and how their responses vary by sociodemographic factors and digital skills. Based on survey data collected in 2023 from 2000 adults ages 60+, we find that many users take a multifaceted approach to assessing false or misleading information on social media. The most common strategies are reading the comments for validation and checking the source. The prevalence of such responses to misinformation highlights older adults’ active participation in information verification on social media. Findings also suggest that those who use the internet less frequently and those with lower social media skills are less likely to use such strategies suggesting that digital inequality is at play when it comes to responding to misinformation.
{"title":"Older Adults’ Response Strategies to Misinformation on Social Media","authors":"Annalise Baines, Eszter Hargittai, John Palfrey","doi":"10.1177/20563051251386360","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251386360","url":null,"abstract":"Social media offer the opportunity for much public discourse, but also come with the potential to spread misinformation far and wide. This study investigates how older adults respond to misinformation on social media and how their responses vary by sociodemographic factors and digital skills. Based on survey data collected in 2023 from 2000 adults ages 60+, we find that many users take a multifaceted approach to assessing false or misleading information on social media. The most common strategies are reading the comments for validation and checking the source. The prevalence of such responses to misinformation highlights older adults’ active participation in information verification on social media. Findings also suggest that those who use the internet less frequently and those with lower social media skills are less likely to use such strategies suggesting that digital inequality is at play when it comes to responding to misinformation.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"166 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145704145","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-06DOI: 10.1177/20563051251395410
Annina Claesson
Even as platformization reshapes communication practices across professional fields, it is not a given that professional norms adapt accordingly. The field of politics is no exception. This study examines how parliamentary teams navigate incentives to embrace social media platforms in their everyday communications work, shedding light on how new media practices are normatively understood in the political field. Drawing on fieldwork in the French Assemblée Nationale and a descriptive mapping of MPs’ social media presences, I find that even as digital communications practices have converged, norms around the legitimacy of social media use in parliamentary work have not. On the one hand, engagement metrics provide guidance in the face of uncertainty, becoming normalized as markers of professionalism. On the other hand, institutional norms reject overt pursuits of ‘virality’. This creates a normative double bind for politicians, at once incentivizing them to adapt to platform demands and punishing communications that maximize metrics at any cost. Depending on party culture and institutional position, politicians have different levels of leeway in resolving this conflict. The study highlights that even as platformization incentivizes convergent practices, professional norms do not necessarily follow the same trajectory, explaining divergent uses of social media in the political field.
{"title":"Influencers in Parliament? Platform Pressures and Normative Conflict in Political Social Media Adoption","authors":"Annina Claesson","doi":"10.1177/20563051251395410","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251395410","url":null,"abstract":"Even as platformization reshapes communication practices across professional fields, it is not a given that professional norms adapt accordingly. The field of politics is no exception. This study examines how parliamentary teams navigate incentives to embrace social media platforms in their everyday communications work, shedding light on how new media practices are normatively understood in the political field. Drawing on fieldwork in the French <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Assemblée Nationale</jats:italic> and a descriptive mapping of MPs’ social media presences, I find that even as digital communications practices have converged, norms around the legitimacy of social media use in parliamentary work have not. On the one hand, engagement metrics provide guidance in the face of uncertainty, becoming normalized as markers of professionalism. On the other hand, institutional norms reject overt pursuits of ‘virality’. This creates a normative double bind for politicians, at once incentivizing them to adapt to platform demands and punishing communications that maximize metrics at any cost. Depending on party culture and institutional position, politicians have different levels of leeway in resolving this conflict. The study highlights that even as platformization incentivizes convergent practices, professional norms do not necessarily follow the same trajectory, explaining divergent uses of social media in the political field.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"141 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145680261","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-05DOI: 10.1177/20563051251403982
Frida Stranne
This article examines how Donald Trump and Joe Biden used Instagram as a platform for emotional political storytelling during their campaigns and presidencies. Based on a thematic analysis of a large sample of Instagram posts (approximately 9000 reviewed, with selected posts analyzed in depth), and grounded in affect theory and visual political communication, the study identifies six central emotional patterns—nostalgia, fear, pride, hope, unity, and grievance—through which both leaders constructed emotionally resonant narratives. While often portrayed as ideological opposites, the analysis suggests that Trump and Biden operate within a shared emotional grammar: both mobilize longing for the past, symbolic restoration, and moral clarity to emotionally realign a fragmented electorate. Instagram, with its aesthetics of intimacy and symbolic condensation, enhances these strategies by offering a visual vocabulary attuned to affective public sentiment. The analysis explores how both leaders engage with and reshape prevailing emotional undercurrents in American society, focusing on how emotion functions as a narrative resource in digital political communication. In doing so, the article contributes to research on affective publics, the emotional simplification of politics, and the role of visual storytelling in the performance of democratic legitimacy in the digital age.
{"title":"Make America Better Again: Emotional Narratives and the Use of Instagram in the Campaigns of Trump and Biden","authors":"Frida Stranne","doi":"10.1177/20563051251403982","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251403982","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines how Donald Trump and Joe Biden used Instagram as a platform for emotional political storytelling during their campaigns and presidencies. Based on a thematic analysis of a large sample of Instagram posts (approximately 9000 reviewed, with selected posts analyzed in depth), and grounded in affect theory and visual political communication, the study identifies six central emotional patterns—nostalgia, fear, pride, hope, unity, and grievance—through which both leaders constructed emotionally resonant narratives. While often portrayed as ideological opposites, the analysis suggests that Trump and Biden operate within a shared emotional grammar: both mobilize longing for the past, symbolic restoration, and moral clarity to emotionally realign a fragmented electorate. Instagram, with its aesthetics of intimacy and symbolic condensation, enhances these strategies by offering a visual vocabulary attuned to affective public sentiment. The analysis explores how both leaders engage with and reshape prevailing emotional undercurrents in American society, focusing on how emotion functions as a narrative resource in digital political communication. In doing so, the article contributes to research on affective publics, the emotional simplification of politics, and the role of visual storytelling in the performance of democratic legitimacy in the digital age.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145673558","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-04DOI: 10.1177/20563051251399007
Heysung Lee, Hernando Rojas
How social media fuels affective polarization, characterized by favorability toward in-party members and apathy toward out-party members, has emerged as a crucial topic in political communication. However, few studies examine the relationship between social media and affective polarization in multi-party contexts outside American politics. Applying Wagner’s methodology for measuring affective polarization in a multi-party system, we calculate affective polarization in three ways: the traditional method as the absolute difference between liberal and conservative politicians, mean distance as the average distance from a person’s favorite politician, and spread as the average distance from an individual’s mean feelings toward politicians. We investigate how social media use is related to affective polarization using these three measures based on a survey of 1,159 respondents from Colombia in 2022. The findings indicate that the three measures of affective polarization intensify with the use of social media, mediated by ideological extremity. The results suggest that the role of social media and ideology may be consistent regardless of the way of measuring affective polarization when a country has multiple parties and political elites, further suggesting implications for affective polarization in political systems with more than two parties.
{"title":"More than Two-Party Divides? Social Media, Ideological Extremity, and Affective Polarization in the Multi-party System","authors":"Heysung Lee, Hernando Rojas","doi":"10.1177/20563051251399007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251399007","url":null,"abstract":"How social media fuels affective polarization, characterized by favorability toward in-party members and apathy toward out-party members, has emerged as a crucial topic in political communication. However, few studies examine the relationship between social media and affective polarization in multi-party contexts outside American politics. Applying Wagner’s methodology for measuring affective polarization in a multi-party system, we calculate affective polarization in three ways: the traditional method as the absolute difference between liberal and conservative politicians, mean distance as the average distance from a person’s favorite politician, and spread as the average distance from an individual’s mean feelings toward politicians. We investigate how social media use is related to affective polarization using these three measures based on a survey of 1,159 respondents from Colombia in 2022. The findings indicate that the three measures of affective polarization intensify with the use of social media, mediated by ideological extremity. The results suggest that the role of social media and ideology may be consistent regardless of the way of measuring affective polarization when a country has multiple parties and political elites, further suggesting implications for affective polarization in political systems with more than two parties.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145664490","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1177/20563051251399008
Manuel Goyanes, Hui Min Lee, Rebecca Scheffauer, Homero Gil de Zúñiga
Social media has emerged as a pivotal platform for accessing news content today. While there appears to be a connection between news consumption on social media platforms and perceived knowledge of public affairs, little is known about the potential effect on specific issues like artificial intelligence (AI). To extend findings on people’s perceived knowledge of AI, how it relates to social media news consumption, and what other factors can contribute, we offer results based on original survey data from two societies (Germany, N = 2213, and Spain, N = 2337). This study advances a moderated mediation model by which social media news positively predicts heightened AI interest, which in turn is associated with increased AI subjective knowledge. This effect is significant for both conservatives and liberals, albeit stronger for conservatives.
{"title":"Linking Social Media News Use, AI Interest, and Political Ideology With AI Subjective Knowledge: A Moderated Mediation Model Across Two Countries","authors":"Manuel Goyanes, Hui Min Lee, Rebecca Scheffauer, Homero Gil de Zúñiga","doi":"10.1177/20563051251399008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251399008","url":null,"abstract":"Social media has emerged as a pivotal platform for accessing news content today. While there appears to be a connection between news consumption on social media platforms and perceived knowledge of public affairs, little is known about the potential effect on specific issues like artificial intelligence (AI). To extend findings on people’s perceived knowledge of AI, how it relates to social media news consumption, and what other factors can contribute, we offer results based on original survey data from two societies (Germany, <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">N</jats:italic> = 2213, and Spain, <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">N</jats:italic> = 2337). This study advances a moderated mediation model by which social media news positively predicts heightened AI interest, which in turn is associated with increased AI subjective knowledge. This effect is significant for both conservatives and liberals, albeit stronger for conservatives.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145651537","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1177/20563051251399015
Mattias van Ommen, Ginga Yahanashi
This article explores how competitive gaming communities on Discord function as third places in Japan. Using ethnographic methods, including participant observation and interviews, we examine the social dynamics of “Medimura” (pseudonym), a Discord community centered around skilled Splatoon 3 players. We found that players negotiate competitive pressures and ambiguous communication styles through playful activities that foster meaningful social connections. Doing so, we show that while users initially join such Discord communities to enhance their gameplay, over time, these spaces evolve into third places, offering vital opportunities for social interaction and emotional support in contemporary Japan. This provides insights into how digital games and social media help transform third places in the digital age.
{"title":"Finding Belonging in Competitive Play: How a Japanese Splatoon Discord Community Functions as a Third Place","authors":"Mattias van Ommen, Ginga Yahanashi","doi":"10.1177/20563051251399015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251399015","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores how competitive gaming communities on Discord function as third places in Japan. Using ethnographic methods, including participant observation and interviews, we examine the social dynamics of “Medimura” (pseudonym), a Discord community centered around skilled <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Splatoon 3</jats:italic> players. We found that players negotiate competitive pressures and ambiguous communication styles through playful activities that foster meaningful social connections. Doing so, we show that while users initially join such Discord communities to enhance their gameplay, over time, these spaces evolve into third places, offering vital opportunities for social interaction and emotional support in contemporary Japan. This provides insights into how digital games and social media help transform third places in the digital age.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"198200 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145651557","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-30DOI: 10.1177/20563051251382449
Aliaksandr Herasimenka, Ralph Schroeder
Social media communities are increasingly considered as spaces where evidence-based information about history is undermined. We combine expert interviews and content analysis of debates about genocide in a popular online contrarian community to understand how to mitigate the spread of misleading information across such communities in the domain of history. We analyse 1725 entries on 10 Reddit forums dedicated to debating and promoting scepticism towards international consensus about prominent historical topics. The entries we analyse cover three topics referred to as genocide by forum members: the Holocaust, the Holodomor, and the COVID-19 vaccination. The prevailing view suggests that contrarian expression fosters smaller, ideologically homogeneous, and relatively radical online spaces where differing views are diminished or entirely absent. To the contrary, we analyse real-life behavioural data to demonstrate substantial scepticism towards contrarian narratives even in some of the most popular dedicated online communities, which may suggest that these spaces are more internally contested than prevailing theories imply.
{"title":"History and Contrarian Expression: Debating Genocide on Reddit","authors":"Aliaksandr Herasimenka, Ralph Schroeder","doi":"10.1177/20563051251382449","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251382449","url":null,"abstract":"Social media communities are increasingly considered as spaces where evidence-based information about history is undermined. We combine expert interviews and content analysis of debates about genocide in a popular online contrarian community to understand how to mitigate the spread of misleading information across such communities in the domain of history. We analyse 1725 entries on 10 Reddit forums dedicated to debating and promoting scepticism towards international consensus about prominent historical topics. The entries we analyse cover three topics referred to as genocide by forum members: the Holocaust, the Holodomor, and the COVID-19 vaccination. The prevailing view suggests that contrarian expression fosters smaller, ideologically homogeneous, and relatively radical online spaces where differing views are diminished or entirely absent. To the contrary, we analyse real-life behavioural data to demonstrate substantial scepticism towards contrarian narratives even in some of the most popular dedicated online communities, which may suggest that these spaces are more internally contested than prevailing theories imply.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-11-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145619596","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-25DOI: 10.1177/20563051251395398
Tianchan Mao, Chris Chao Su, Ngai Keung Chan, Lei Guo
In this article, we argue that social media platforms communicate their governance strategies both about and through values across diverse sites of communication— about values in presenting normative ideals and through values to justify their content moderation practices. Moreover, we highlight the significance of analyzing platform values across temporal and regional contexts, especially beyond the Western sphere. Focusing on X and Weibo, we employed content and network analysis to examine how they articulated values in different venues to regulate public expression from 2007 to 2024. Our findings reveal an increasing convergence in how the two platforms communicate about values in their community guidelines, suggesting a trend of institutional isomorphism in response to shared challenges such as misinformation and online safety. However, they diverged in communicating through values in administrative posts. While X emphasized personal-level values such as self-expression, Weibo prioritized social-level values, particularly social and political security, often in the context of addressing concrete cases.
{"title":"Communicating About and Through Platform Values: Legitimizing Public Expression Regulation on X and Weibo 2007–2024","authors":"Tianchan Mao, Chris Chao Su, Ngai Keung Chan, Lei Guo","doi":"10.1177/20563051251395398","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051251395398","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, we argue that social media platforms communicate their governance strategies both <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">about</jats:italic> and <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">through</jats:italic> values across diverse sites of communication— <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">about</jats:italic> values in presenting normative ideals and <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">through</jats:italic> values to justify their content moderation practices. Moreover, we highlight the significance of analyzing platform values across temporal and regional contexts, especially beyond the Western sphere. Focusing on X and Weibo, we employed content and network analysis to examine how they articulated values in different venues to regulate public expression from 2007 to 2024. Our findings reveal an increasing convergence in how the two platforms communicate about values in their community guidelines, suggesting a trend of institutional isomorphism in response to shared challenges such as misinformation and online safety. However, they diverged in communicating through values in administrative posts. While X emphasized personal-level values such as self-expression, Weibo prioritized social-level values, particularly social and political security, often in the context of addressing concrete cases.","PeriodicalId":47920,"journal":{"name":"Social Media + Society","volume":"191 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.2,"publicationDate":"2025-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145593983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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