Content moderation and welfare

Last registered on September 18, 2021
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Content moderation and welfare
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0008189
Initial registration date
September 16, 2021

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
September 17, 2021, 7:39 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
September 18, 2021, 6:05 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Rafael J Jimenez Duran
Affiliation
University of Chicago
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2021-09-20
End date
2021-12-31
Keywords
Other, Welfare
Additional Keywords
social media, moderation, censorship
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Study about the impact of content moderation of social media on consumer surplus
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Jimenez Duran, Rafael J. 2021. "Content moderation and welfare." AEA RCT Registry. September 18. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8189-1.1
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
See pre-analysis plan
Intervention Start Date
2021-09-20
Intervention End Date
2021-09-26

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
willingness to accept (WTA) to stop using social media for one week
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
WTA is elicited with an iterative multiple price list

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
See pre-analysis plan
Experimental Design Details
Participants will be asked demographic questions, questions about their social media use and about their experience with moderation on Twitter

Participants are then asked questions about the prevalence of hate speech on Twitter and the likelihood of moderation. The treatment consists on providing truthful information about prevalence and moderation. This information comes from a sample of Tweets gathered by me in August 2020.

Half of the sample will be randomized to a "low moderation" treatment and half to a "high moderation" treatment

The low moderation treatment classifies hate speech according to the "majority rule": a post is hate speech if the majority of annotators classify it as such. Under this rule, less than 1% of Tweets are hate speech and Twitter removes or de-platforms 3.6% of Tweets / users within 1 month of the post.

The high moderation treatment classifies hate speech according to the "consensus rule": a post is hate speech if all of the annotators classify it as such. Under this rule, less than 1% of Tweets are hate speech and Twitter removes or de-platforms 9.1% of Tweets / users within 1 month of the post.

Participants are informed about the rule that they were assigned: "We call a Tweet "hate speech" if [most/all] annotators label its text as hateful—not just offensive". They are also informed about the prevalence and likelihood of moderation corresponding to their assigned rule.
Randomization Method
Randomization done through Qualtrics using the "Evenly present items" feature
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
3000 respondents. Additionally, will pool 100 respondents from the pilot
Sample size: planned number of observations
3000 respondents. Additionally, will pool respondents from the pilot
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Half of the sample in the low moderation arm
Half of the sample in the high moderation arm
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
See pre-analysis plan
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Chicago SBS-IRB
IRB Approval Date
2021-07-01
IRB Approval Number
IRB21-1067
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials