Moderating Content-Hosting Platforms

Robin Ng () and Greg Taylor ()

CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series from University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany

Abstract: We study how content moderation facilitates communication on online platforms. A sender transmits information to a receiver, exerting effort to signal their truthfulness. Communication fails without moderation because the effort required is prohibitive. Moderation resolves this problem by making effort a more powerful signal of veracity. However, moderation crowds out sender effort, decreasing engagement value of content on the platform. A socially optimal policy may therefore involve limited moderation, but platforms often have an incentive to allow too much false content. We study the interaction between moderation and other strategic platform choices, including a platform’s decision to share revenue with creators, the decision to be a content-hosting platform, and the enablement of AI features.

Keywords: user-generated content; content moderation; creator economy; media platforms; misinformation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 L82 L86 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47
Date: 2025-08, Revised 2026-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mic
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2025_698v3

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