Crowd-moderation of hateful content on social media: mobilizing bystanders through scalable interventions

Recent research suggests that crowd-moderation offers a promising remedy for online political hate. However, interventions promoting online behavior change face challenges of scalability. In two large-scale survey experiments in the US (N = 2105) and Australia (N = 2093), we find that 30-second and 15-second videos, as well as corresponding still-picture infographics calling upon social media users to”speak up, report, support,” increase respondents’ willingness to engage in counterspeech and report hateful content. Our findings demonstrate that brief, scalable interventions can mobilize online bystanders to engage in crowd-moderation, offering optimism for a healthier digital ecosystem with lower levels of hate.