Flagged Link Reshare Interstitial
Interstitial to limit resharing of flagged links. Do you really want to share?
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 resharing flagged material.
When to use it?
Platforms that experience the spread of flagged links through the reshare of posts should include this pattern to slow the spread by providing friction in the reshare process.
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 status of the link as flagged can be determined by the platform, or by a certain amount of reports of the site.
Provide an interstitial in the interaction to allow the user to rethink sharing flagged material.
Provide access to terms of service or community rules and the consequences of sharing flagged material.
Advantages
An interstitial before resharing flagged links increases friction in the reshare process, decreasing the viral spread of links to hateful sites and disinformation by warning users of the consequences of their reshare if they continue.
The added moment of friction provides users the opportunity to reflect on the content they are resharing, and reconsider their decision to post.
Examples
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/.