Alyvia Walters, Ph.D.
Publications
Works In Progress
Should the powerful be moderated? Social media users' perspectives on moderating politicians' inappropriate speech Abstract: This study investigates users’ orientations towards politicians' inappropriate speech online, and how they choose to attempt moderation of this speech. It contributes not only to the policy discussions on how to regulate–or not–politicians’ speech online, but also to general discussions of platform regulation of the powerful and its discontents from users’ perspectives--the very citizens who are represented by these politicians, and have a democratic right to hold them to account. Through focus groups, participants will be asked to reflect on their practices around online speech they deem inappropriate from politicians.
Offline racism and online harm: Investigating racially insensitive social media users' framings of content moderation Abstract: This study uses Pew's 2020 American Trends Survey Panel data to investigate correlations between respondents' offline racial attitudes and their opinions on content moderation online. Putting this data in conversation with the context of the survey's moment--immediately post-BLM marches of Summer 2020--we discuss implications.
Studying the current state of user-enacted moderation features on social media through the experience of users with visual impairments Abstract: This study interviews blind and low-vision social media users to assess the accessibility of different types of content moderation tools on Facebook and X, including reporting, blocking, and muting.