Is Block Party the Future of Content Moderation?
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 3 February 2022
⏱️ 55 minutes
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Summary
We talk a lot on this show about the responsibility of major tech platforms when it comes to content moderation. But what about problems the platforms can’t—or won’t—fix? Tracy Chou’s solution involves going around platforms entirely and creating tools that give power back to users to control their own experience. She’s the engineer behind Block Party, an app that allows Twitter users to protect themselves against online harassment and abuse. It’s a fine-tuned solution to a problem that a lot of Twitter users struggle with, especially women and particularly women of color.
This week on Arbiters of Truth, our series on the online information ecosystem, Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic spoke with Tracy about her work developing Block Party and how the persistent lack of diversity in Silicon Valley contributes to an environment where users have little protection against harassment. They also talked about what it’s like working with the platforms that Block Party and other apps like it are seeking to improve. And they discussed what content moderation problems these kinds of user-driven tools might help solve–and which they won’t.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:14.7 | That's patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:33.9 | It's very difficult for the platforms to do a good job of it. |
| 0:36.7 | We talk about how content moderation is so tricky to get right in different contexts, |
| 0:42.3 | different communities, countries, languages. |
| 0:44.9 | It's so difficult to get it right. |
| 0:47.2 | It's impossible for a single platform that is primarily based in one place to be able |
| 0:54.0 | to do this effectively across the entire world. |
| 0:56.8 | And so I think where we have landed now, it makes more sense for users to be able to |
| 1:01.7 | have more control. |
| 1:03.7 | I'm Quinted Jurassic and this is the LawFair podcast, February 3, 2022. |
| 1:11.7 | Today we're bringing you another episode of Arbitus of Truth, our series on the online |
| 1:16.0 | information ecosystem. |
| 1:18.3 | We talk a lot on this show about the responsibility of major tech platforms, but it comes to content |
| 1:23.5 | moderation. |
| 1:24.5 | But what about problems that the platforms can't or won't fix? |
| 1:29.8 | Tracy Chao's solution involves going around platforms entirely and creating tools that |
| 1:34.3 | give power back to users to control their own experience. |
| 1:38.5 | She's the engineer behind Block Party, an app that allows Twitter users to protect themselves |
... |
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