Content Moderation on Instagram and Body Image

Though research findings align that image-based social media are detrimental to users' body image, the efforts to mitigate these effects have had limited success. Specifically, prior research focused on labeling harmful content or advocating for social media discontinuance. Informed about the limits of such solutions, we propose that user training in moderating social media content with inbuilt features, such as unfollowing and muting helps elevate users' body image. In our online experiment, experimental group participants receive training on leveraging Instagram's features for moderating the content that makes the participants feel bad about themselves. Meanwhile, the task for the control group does not involve content moderation activity. The treatment is expected to reduce Instagram users' body image concerns, captured as, for example, own weight and shape perceptions, body image dissatisfaction, and physical appearance comparison.