Announcing a New Special Issue of Social Media+ Society on “Trust and Safety on Social Media: Understanding the Impact of Anti-Social Behavior and Misinformation on Content Moderation and Platform Governance”

Editors: Anatoliy Gruzd, Felipe Bonow Soares, and Philip Mai

Publication date: 2023

We are pleased to announce the publication of our new special issue in Social Media+ Society on “Trust and Safety on Social Media: Understanding the Impact of Anti-Social Behavior and Misinformation on Content Moderation and Platform Governance,” edited by Anatoliy Gruzd, Felipe Bonow Soares, and Philip Mai.

The issue features eleven open access peer-reviewed articles that examine “the rise of anti-social behavior, misinformation, and other forms of problematic content within and across various social media settings, contexts, and user groups. The special issue featured work that emerged from the presentations and deliberations by interdisciplinary scholars at the 2022 International Conference on Social Media & Society, organized by the Social Media Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University. The issue explores two dangerous and interconnecting trends: the rise of anti-social behavior and the spread of misinformation online. Its aim is to help the public, policymakers, and platform operators better understand the factors contributing to the rise of these minacious trends on social media.”

The issue was truly a team effort. We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all contributing authors, reviewers and guest editors for contributing to the publication of this timely and in-depth issue and to SM+S publisher and journal editor Zizi Papacharissi for supporting the special issue from its inception to publication.

All articles are free to read and accessible at the links below.

Table of Contents

Anatoliy Gruzd, Felipe Bonow Soares, Philip MaiIntroduction to the Special Issue on Trust and Safety on Social Media
Caroline HaythornthwaiteModeration, Networks, and Anti-Social Behavior Online
Ethan Zuckerman and Chand Rajendra-NicolucciFrom Community Governance to Customer Service and Back Again: Re-Examining Pre-Web Models of Online Governance to Address Platforms’ Crisis of Legitimacy
Ashiwn NagappaNarratives of change to platform governance on DTube, an emerging blockchain-based video-sharing platform
Daniel Angus, Axel Bruns, Edward Hurcombe, Stephen Harrington and Xue Ying TanComputational Communication Methods for Examining Problematic News-Sharing Practices on Facebook at Scale
Fabio Giglietto, Giada Marino, Roberto Mincigrucci and Anna StanzianoA Workflow to Track, Monitor and Update Lists of Coordinated Social Media Accounts Across Time: the Case of 2022 Italian Election
Nili SteinfeldHow do users examine online messages to determine if they are credible? An eye-tracking study of digital literacy, visual attention to metadata and success in misinformation identification
Bin Chen, Josephine Lukito and Gyo Hyun KooComparing the #StopTheSteal Movement across Multi-platform: Differentiating Discourse on Facebook, Twitter, and Parler
Debora Salles, Priscila Medeiros, Rose Marie Santini and Carlos Eduardo BarrosThe Far-Right Smokescreen: Environmental Conspiracy and culture wars on Brazilian YouTube
Esteban MoralesEcologies of violence on social media: An exploration of practices, contexts, and grammars of online harm
Jaigris Hodson and Victoria O’MearaCurating Hope: the aspirational self and social engagement in early-onset cancer communities on social media
Ruvimbo Musiyiwa and Jenna JacobsonSponsorship Disclosure in Social Media Influencer Marketing: The Algorithmic and Non-Algorithmic Barriers