Flagged Link Post Interstitial
Warning interstitial to help users reduce posting flagged links.
How does this mitigate hate?
Social platforms provide the ability for users to reach a large audience, which is exploited by hateful groups to spread their ideology through links to sites containing hateful content. Providing friction in the user’s interaction allows time to pause and rethink the consequences of sharing flagged material.
When to use it?
Platforms that experience issues of users sharing links to sites that promote hateful content, should use this pattern to slow the production of posts that include flagged links.
Including this pattern before the issue arises could help to slow the spread of flagged links, mitigating the influence of sites that promote hateful content.
How does it work?
The warning should tell them that they are including a link that violates the rules of the platform.
It should also ask if they are sure they want to continue posting, and provide them the option of either going back to edit out the flagged site link, or to continue to post and take responsibility for the consequences.
Advantages
An interstitial before sharing posts with flagged links increases friction in the posting process, decreasing the viral spread of links to hateful sites by warning users of the consequences of their post if they continue.
The added moment of friction provides users the opportunity to reflect on the content they are sharing, and reconsider their decision to post.
Examples
Twitter shows an interstitial to users when clicking a link that may go to unsafe—hateful, violent or other material.
(Screenshot taken July 2021)
References
“About Unsafe Links.” help.twitter.com, July 2020. https://help.twitter.com/en/safety-and-security/phishing-spam-and-malware-links.
Katsaros, Matthew, Kathy Yang, Lauren Fratamico, and Twitter Inc. “Reconsidering Tweets: Intervening during Tweet Creation Decreases Offensive Content,” 2021. https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.00773
Roston, Brittany A. “Twitter Cracks down on Links to Violent and Hateful Third-Party Content.” SlashGear, July 29, 2020. https://www.slashgear.com/twitter-cracks-down-on-links-to-violent-and-hateful-third-party-content-29631284/.