Volunteer Moderation as Situated Civic Labor in Local Information Infrastructures

Paper Title

Volunteer Moderation as Situated Civic Labor in Local Information Infrastructures

Publication Info

• Topic area: The role of volunteer moderators in sustaining local online information infrastructures.
• Keywords: Volunteer moderation, local information infrastructure, civic labor, social media platforms, community governance, local journalism, HCI, CSCW, platform design, democratic practices.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: The decline of local news media in the U.S. has left many communities without reliable local information sources, creating "news deserts." Social media platforms have partially filled this gap, but the role of volunteer moderators in managing these local online spaces is underexplored, particularly in terms of their contributions to local information infrastructure.
• Significance: Understanding the role of volunteer moderators is critical for addressing local information needs, fostering civic engagement, and supporting community well-being in the absence of traditional local journalism.
• Motivation and related work: Prior research has examined moderation labor, decision-making, and conflict management across platforms but has not sufficiently addressed the situated, community-specific roles of volunteer moderators in local information ecosystems. This paper focuses on this gap, emphasizing the embeddedness of moderators in their communities.

Solution

• Proposed approach: The paper conceptualizes local volunteer moderation as situated civic labor, emphasizing the interpretive, relational, and context-sensitive nature of moderators' work in sustaining local information infrastructures.
• Novelty:
  1. Conceptualization of local volunteer moderation as situated civic labor that bridges online and offline community life.
  2. Identification of the challenges moderators face, including high information volumes, conflicts, and platform limitations.
  3. Analysis of the skills and judgment moderators employ to navigate local norms and platform tools.
  4. Design implications for platforms to better support moderators and enhance democratic practices in local online spaces.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Conducted an Asynchronous Remote Community (ARC) study with 30 U.S.-based moderators, followed by interviews with 20 participants.
  • Conducted a second phase of interviews with 24 moderators to explore changes in local information flow during the U.S. general election.
  • Data analyzed using inductive thematic analysis to identify key practices, challenges, and skills of moderators.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Moderators identified eight critical categories of local information needs: emergency and public safety, health, education, transportation, environment, economic development, civic life, and political information.
  • Moderators' roles included creating informational order, maintaining technical infrastructure, and fostering safe, welcoming environments.
  • Moderators relied on local knowledge, interpretive judgment, and relational skills to manage group dynamics and address community-specific challenges.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • The study highlights the unique, situated nature of local moderation compared to general moderation practices, emphasizing the importance of community-specific knowledge and offline–online connections.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Data collected from 40 moderators across Facebook, Nextdoor, and Reddit through ARC activities, interviews, and follow-up discussions.
  • Analysis revealed moderators' practices, challenges, and the interplay between platform tools and local contexts.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Focused on U.S.-based, English-speaking moderators, limiting cross-cultural generalizability.
  • Did not include perspectives of community members; future research should explore their experiences.
  • Findings may not fully apply to other platforms like Discord, X, or TikTok.

Summary

This paper examines the role of volunteer moderators in sustaining local online groups on platforms like Facebook, Nextdoor, and Reddit. Moderators act as stewards of local information infrastructure, performing civic labor to manage information flows, maintain technical systems, and foster safe, inclusive environments. Their work is deeply situated, relying on local knowledge and interpretive skills to address community-specific needs. The study provides design implications for platforms to better support moderators, enhance local information management, and promote democratic practices. These findings underscore the critical role of moderators in bridging online and offline community life, particularly in the context of declining local journalism.