Mapping Community Appeals Systems: Lessons for Community-led Moderation in Multi-Level Governance

Platforms are increasingly adopting industrial models of moderation that prioritize scalability and consistency, frequently at the expense of context-sensitive and user-centered values. Building on the multi-level governance framework that examines the interdependent relationship between platforms and middle-level communities, we investigate community appeals systems on Discord as a model for successful community-led governance. We investigate how Discord servers operationalize appeal systems through a qualitative interview study with focus groups and individual interviews with 17 community moderators. Our findings reveal a structured appeals process that balances scalability, fairness, and accountability while upholding community-centered values of growth and rehabilitation. Communities design these processes to empower users, ensuring their voices are heard in moderation decisions and fostering a sense of belonging. This research provides insights into the practical implementation of community-led governance in a multi-level governance framework, illustrating how communities can maintain their core principles while integrating procedural fairness and tool-based design. We discuss how platforms can gain insights from community-led moderation work to motivate governance structures that effectively balance and align the interests of multiple stakeholders.