It is expected that by the end of this year, almost 60% of social media users in the world will be based in the Asia-Pacific region. This growth is rising rapidly with around 59 million new users expected to be added.
While some Western social media platforms are prominent in Asia, the continent also boasts a few significant ones of its own. Examples include China’s Tencent QQ, Zhihu, Youku, WeChat, Douban, and many others. With rising social media adoption comes the need for content moderation as user-generated content (UGC) skyrockets.
But what is content moderation for social media, what are the challenges associated with it, and how can these be overcome? These are just some of the questions we explore in this article. Let’s take a closer look.
What is content moderation and where is it used?
Content moderation is the process of monitoring, reviewing, removing, or filtering UGC that is considered inappropriate, unlawful, or non-compliant on social media platforms. This market (content moderation) is anticipated to exceed $13 billion by 2027.
Used in social media, content moderation poses several challenges to the people behind it, leading to a rise in AI for content moderation as opposed to humans or a combination of both, as a way of safeguarding users from harmful or offensive content.
The challenges involved in content moderation
Before AI for content moderation can be implemented, it’s worth considering some of the challenges and complexities involved in the process. Here are just a few worth highlighting:
- The scale of UGC generated daily is a highly labor-intensive task.
- It’s necessary to understand the UGC’s context and cultural nuances to avoid over- or under-moderation to ensure a balance between protection and freedom of expression.
- Another challenge is the continuous pressure to update and enforce policies and guidelines
- Handling personal data at the same time raises concerns about privacy and data protection
- Content moderators are also exposed to harmful and disturbing content as part of their job, and they may experience desensitization and mental health issues
- The emerging threats of deep fakes and disinformation are other concerns worth bearing in mind
Ways of overcoming these challenges: Enter artificial intelligence (AI)
Because content moderation until now has been a highly labor-intensive task, technology is quickly stepping in to address this challenge through the rise in AI for content moderation.
It is possible for these technologies and algorithms to recognize patterns and then flag content that could potentially be considered problematic. As such, AI for content moderation is capable of automating processes and relieving human moderators of a substantial and potentially harmful workload.
Working together with AI tools and humans in this regard emerges as the optimal solution to strike the right balance. This is especially important to ensure that the contexts and cultural understandings are preserved so that better and more informed decisions can be made. Here’s how AI for content moderation can help:
- Enhanced automation: when content moderation efforts are bolstered by AI and automation tools, content that could be considered problematic can be flagged faster, enabling and empowering human moderators to review and remove this content. Ultimately, this is an unparalleled way of ensuring greater efficiency and effectiveness in the process.
- Contextual analysis: since AI is continuously learning, it is becoming ever more adept at spotting nuances in content and studying contexts that give it a greater understanding of the meaning behind UGC. This can then reduce false positives and improve accuracy.
- Transparency: in the world of content moderation and social media, there are always going to be concerns about online privacy and data security. However, these can be significantly alleviated with AI technology and tools, which can boost transparency as they offer users more details and information about aspects such as data usage, appeals management, and moderation decisions. In turn, this can foster greater levels of trust among users.
- Collaboration: to foster a climate of collaboration between content moderators and social media platforms, there needs to be coordination through effective information sharing. Such a collective effort can lead to faster identification and removal of harmful content, boosting content moderation’s overall efforts.
- Empowering users: through AI for content moderation, it’s possible to give users more control over their online experience. As such, this can create a safer online space and a hyper-personalized online environment.
Obstacles of content moderation in Asia
Of course, because AI for content moderation is still a relatively new phenomenon that is still in its infancy, a lot remains to be done in terms of monitoring and developing rules for its use and application. There is concern in many Asian states about where AI can take us.
Japan, for example, is concerned about the influence of TikTok on its population, fostering a climate of superficiality and lack of critical thinking. In addition, with deep fakes created by AI, it’s also leading to concerns that audiences are not as discerning about content consumed online as they should be.
While some countries in Southeast Asia are considering following in the European Union’s (EU’s) footsteps in terms of freedom of expression that balances data and online privacy, more regulation needs to be adopted to ensure a safer online environment for users.
China is taking strides in this regard by implementing AI-related regulations that could see this goal achieved. However, only time will tell whether its efforts are successful and whether they can be replicated in other parts of the world.
Conclusion
As UGC rises exponentially, there’s never been a greater need for content moderation to enhance the users’ online experience while ensuring that they are protected and safe in the online space.
This is where AI for content moderation emerges as an exceptional, fast, and constantly learning tool to help with the process and ensure that a fine balance is maintained between the use of AI and human efforts to achieve these goals.