From civility to parity : Marxist-feminist ethics for context-aware algorithmic content moderation

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Oh, Dayei; Calabrese, Agostina and de Kock, Christine and Nozza, Debora and Plaza-del-Arco, Flor Miriam and Talat, Zeerak and Vargas, Francielle, eds. (2025) From civility to parity : Marxist-feminist ethics for context-aware algorithmic content moderation. In: Proceedings of The 9th Workshop on Online Abuse and Harms (WOAH). Association for Computational Linguistics, AUT, pp. 32-40.

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Abstract

Algorithmic content moderation governs online speech on large-scale commercial platforms, often under the guise of neutrality. Yet, it routinely reproduces white, middle-class norms of civility and penalizes marginalized voices for unruly and resistant speech. This paper critiques the prevailing ‘pathological’ approach to moderation that prioritizes sanitization over justice. Drawing on Marxist-feminist ethics, this paper advances three theses for the future of context-aware algorithmic moderation: (1) prioritizing participatory parity over civility, (2) incorporating identity- and context-aware analysis of speech; and (3) replacing purely numerical evaluations with justice-oriented, community-sensitive metrics. While acknowledging the structural limitations posed by platform capitalism, this paper positions the proposed framework as both critique and provocation, guiding regulatory reform, civil advocacy, and visions for mission-driven online content moderation serving digital commons.

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