Better Online Living Through Content Moderation

The article is an essay advocating the use of content moderators for online activity. The author, Melissa King, starts her argument by reminding her audience that there are people who value content control. People attempting to avoid certain triggers, such as those who suffer from PTSD or those with a solid grasp on their own comfort zones. King argues that whatever the reason, it can be considered valid as, “Nobody should be required to read or listen to content if they do not want to.” She confronts the arguments used against such features, one being that viewers should simply be more thick-skinned, King states that people taking offense to strangers insulting and threatening them is not a simple matter of being weak. She notes specifically that such online harassment has been proven to cause long lasting psychological trauma. King draws a parallel between the groups that commit such acts and hate mobs, and points out that blocking and therefore avoiding such groups is an effective way to stop the assault, “giving others the power to personally moderate the worst of the internet… is often the best option victims have.” She makes examples of the abuse that women suffer, mentioning how easy it is to have such abuse brought down upon them for attempting to challenge the sexism that can run rampant, and brings up a UN hosted event where women shared stories of the abuse they’d been forced to deal with personally. She goes on to say that people have a right to avoid such hateful content and should never be told that they do and doing that is only encouraging the setup that allows for abuse to happen.