Comment Report

The ability to report a comment on content created by a user that is harassing, violent, or violates a platform's Terms of Service.

How does this mitigate hate?

Users should be able to report harassing or hateful comments regardless of whether they are the account holder for the item receiving comments. Sending a comment for review should remove or hide the comment so it does not trigger another user of the platform.

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When to use it?

Use when a comment violates the Community Agreement or Terms of Service.

Reporting is generally for the following reasons: spam, nudity or sexual activity, hate speech or symbols, racist language or activity, violence or dangerous organizations, bullying or harassment, selling illegal or regulated goods, intellectual property violations, and suicide or self injury.

How does it work?

Offer users the ability to report a comment on their posts or in their feed.

Offer users who are visiting a page the ability to report hateful or harassing comments.

Make the call to action for reporting easy to find and clearly associated with a specific comment.

A comment being reported should offer the reporter the ability to specify the reasons for reporting, which helps the moderator determine the course of action to take.

Once the comment is reported, it should be hidden from view.

Moderators may remove the ability to comment or suspend the problematic commenters account.

 

Advantages

Comments should be hidden after reporting. Users feel safer knowing that hateful comments will be removed and users can be reprimanded.

While being reviewed, a notice that a comment has been removed or reported might be appropriate until the review is finalized.

Disadvantages

Anyone can report a comment even if it does not break the community guidelines.

Users can target individuals for hateful reasons and may be the cause of account suspensions or removals.

Examples

Report Comment

Report comment option on Instagram

References

Crumlish, Christian, and Erin Malone. Designing Social Interfaces : Principles, Patterns, and Practices for Improving the User Experience. 2nd ed. Sebastopol, Ca: O’Reilly Media, Inc., August, 2015.

Cupples, Sarah. “Frictionless Design, Frictionless Racism.” Medium, February 6, 2021. https://uxdesign.cc/frictionless-racism-1097022d07f8.

Pardes, Arielle. “Covering Comments Is Instagram’s Newest Anti-Bullying Tool.” Wired, October 6, 2020. https://www.wired.com/story/covering-comments-instagram-newest-anti-bullying-tool/.

Vilk, Viktorya, Elodie Vialle, and Matt Bailey. “No Excuse for Abuse: What Social Media Companies Can Do Now to Combat Online Harassment and Empower Users.” Edited by Summer Lopez and Suzanne Nossel. PEN AMERICA. PEN America, March 31, 2021. https://pen.org/report/no-excuse-for-abuse/.