Modulating moderation: a history of objectionability in Twitter moderation practices

Abstract With their power to shape public discourse under unprecedented scrutiny, social media platforms have revamped speech control practices in recent years by building complex systems of content moderation. The contours this tectonic shift are relatively clear. Yet, little work has systematically documented, examined, and theorized process. This article uses digital methods web history trace the evolution objectionable on Twitter moderation policies between 2006 2022. Its conclusions suggest that, more than abandoning an Americanized view freedom speech, aimed at a crisis-resistant architecture that can withstand external shocks, criticisms, shifting norms. kind modulated moderation, as we term it, hinges form normative plasticity, whose goal is not necessarily adjudicating or less acceptable, but moderating it basis evolving ever contingent conceptions objectionability.