Balancing Acts: Unveiling the Dynamics of Post Removal on Social Media User-Generated Content

References

• Alyakoob M, Rahman MS (2022) Shared prosperity (or lack thereof) in the sharing economy. Inform. Systems Res. 33(2):638–658.Link, Google Scholar
• Autor DH (2003) Outsourcing at will: The contribution of unjust dismissal doctrine to the growth of employment outsourcing. J. Labor Econom. 21(1):1–42.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Baker AC, Larcker DF, Wang CC (2022) How much should we trust staggered difference-in-differences estimates? J. Finance Econom. 144(2):370–395.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Buckley N, Schafer JS (2022) Censorship-free’ platforms: Evaluating content moderation policies and practices of alternative social media. For (e)Dialogue 4(1):1–31.Google Scholar
• Burtch G, Carnahan S, Greenwood BN (2018) Can you gig it? An empirical examination of the gig economy and entrepreneurial activity. Management Sci. 64(12):5497–5520.Link, Google Scholar
• Burtch G, He Q, Hong Y, Lee D (2022) How do peer awards motivate creative content? Experimental evidence from Reddit. Management Sci. 68(5):3488–3506.Link, Google Scholar
• Cengiz D, Dube A, Lindner A, Zipperer B (2019) The effect of minimum wages on low-wage jobs. Quart. J. Econom. 134(3):1405–1454.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Chandrasekharan E, Jhaver S, Bruckman A, Gilbert E (2022) Quarantined! Examining the effects of a community-wide moderation intervention on Reddit. ACM Trans. Comput.-Human Interaction 29(4):1–26.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Chang J, Danescu NMC (2019) Trajectories of blocked community members: Redemption, recidivism and departure. The World Wide Web Conf. (ACM, New York), 184–195.Google Scholar
• Chen W, Wei X, Zhu KX (2018) Engaging voluntary contributions in online communities: A hidden Markov model. MIS Quart. 42(1):83–100.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Cheng Z, Pang MS, Pavlou PA (2020) Mitigating traffic congestion: The role of intelligent transportation systems. Inform. Systems Res. 31(3):653–674.Link, Google Scholar
• Cho CY, Zhu L (2026) Social media: Content dissemination and moderation practices. Congressional Research Service (March 20), https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R46662.Google Scholar
• Cohen J (1988) Set correlation and contingency tables. Appl. Psychol. Measurement 12(4):425–434.Crossref, Google Scholar
• De Chaisemartin C, D’Haultfoeuille X (2022) Difference-in-differences estimators of intertemporal treatment effects. NBER Working Paper No. 29873, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
• Dixon SJ (2023) Actioned spam content items on Facebook worldwide from 4th quarter 2017 to 3rd quarter 2023. Statista (December 19), https://www.statista.com/statistics/1013843/facebook-spam-content-removal-quarter/.Google Scholar
• Duran RJ (2022) The economics of content moderation on social media. ProMarket (November 10), https://www.promarket.org/2022/11/10/the-economics-of-content-moderation-on-social-media/.Google Scholar
• Dwoskin E (2022) Elon Musk wants a free speech utopia. technologists clap back. The Washington Post (April 18), https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/04/18/musk-twitter-free-speech/.Google Scholar
• Feng J, Li X, Zhang X (2019) Online product reviews-triggered dynamic pricing: Theory and evidence. Inform. Systems Res. 30(4):1107–1123.Link, Google Scholar
• Forman C, Ghose A, Wiesenfeld B (2008) Examining the relationship between reviews and sales: The role of reviewer identity disclosure in electronic markets. Inform. Systems Res. 19(3):291–313.Link, Google Scholar
• Geyser W (2022) What is content moderation? Ultimate guide for social media moderation in 2022. Influencer Marketing Hub (June 20), https://influencermarketinghub.com/what-is-content-moderation/.Google Scholar
• Goh KY, Heng CS, Lin Z (2013) Social media brand community and consumer behavior: Quantifying the relative impact of user-and marketer-generated content. Inform. Systems Res. 24(1):88–107.Link, Google Scholar
• Gongane VU, Munot MV, Anuse AD (2022) Detection and moderation of detrimental content on social media platforms: Current status and future directions. Soc. Network Anal. Mining 12(1):129–169.Google Scholar
• Goodman-Bacon A (2021) Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing. J. Econom. 225(2):254–277.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Gopal A, Sivaramakrishnan K (2008) Research note—On vendor preferences for contract types in offshore software projects: The case of fixed price vs. time and materials contracts. Inform. Systems Res. 19(2):202–220.Link, Google Scholar
• He QL, Hong YL, Raghu TS (2025) Platform governance with algorithm-based content moderation: An empirical study on Reddit. Inform. Systems Res. 36(2):1078–1095.Link, Google Scholar
• Heckman JJ (1979) Sample selection bias as a specification error. Econom. J. Econom. Soc. 47(1):153–161.Google Scholar
• Hojati A, Nault BR (2025) Content moderation with shadowbanning. Inform. Systems Res., ePub ahead of print September 25, https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2024.1140. Link, Google Scholar
• Hou J, Ma X (2022) Space norms for constructing quality reviews on online consumer review sites. Inform. Systems Res. 33(3):1093–1112.Link, Google Scholar
• Huang N, Hong YK, Burtch G (2017) Social network integration and user content generation: Evidence from natural experiments. MIS Quart. 41(4):1035–1058.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Huang P, Tafti A, Mithas S (2018) Platform sponsor investments and user contributions in knowledge communities: The role of knowledge seeding. MIS Quart. 42(1):213–240.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Jhaver S, Bruckman A, Gilbert E (2019b) Does transparency in moderation really matter? User behavior after content removal explanations on Reddit. Proc. ACM Human-Comput. Interaction 3(CSCW):1–27.Google Scholar
• Jhaver S, Appling DS, Gilbert E, Bruckman A (2019a) Did you suspect the post would be removed? Understanding user reactions to content removals on Reddit. Proc. ACM Human-Comput. Interaction 3(CSCW):1–33.Google Scholar
• Jiang L, Ravichandran T, Kuruzovich J (2023) Review moderation transparency in online platforms and user behaviors: Evidence from a natural experiment. MIS Quart. 47(4):1693–1708.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Jiang JA, Nie P, Brubaker IR, Fiesler C (2022) A trade-off-centered framework of content moderation. Preprint, submitted June 7, https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.03450.Google Scholar
• Khurana S, Qiu L, Kumar S (2019) When a doctor knows, it shows: An empirical analysis of doctors’ responses in a Q&A forum of an online healthcare portal. Inform. Systems Res. 30(3):872–891.Link, Google Scholar
• Lee GM, He S, Lee J, Whinston AB (2020) Matching mobile applications for cross-promotion. Inform. Systems Res. 31(3):865–891.Link, Google Scholar
• Li R, Shen L (2022) The impact of behavioral topic on psychological reactance: Arousal and freedom restoration. J. Broadcasting Electronic Media 66(1):47–67.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Li X, Hsieh JPA, Rai A (2013) Motivational differences across post-acceptance information system usage behaviors: An investigation in the business intelligence systems context. Inform. Systems Res. 24(3):659–682.Link, Google Scholar
• Lin Y (2022) 10 Reddit statistics you should know in 2023 [infographic]. Oberlo (October 3), https://www.oberlo.com/blog/reddit-statistics.Google Scholar
• Liu Y, Feng J (2021) Does money talk? The impact of monetary incentives on user-generated content contributions. Inform. Systems Res. 32(2):394–409.Link, Google Scholar
• Liu L, Wang Y, Xu Y (2024) A practical guide to counterfactual estimators for causal inference with time-series cross-sectional data. Amer. J. Political Sci. 68(1):160–176.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Liu Y, Pu J, Chen Y, Qiu L, Cheng HK (2025) Departmental boundaries and knowledge sharing in corporate online communities. Inform. Systems Res., ePub ahead of print June 9, https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2023.0086.Link, Google Scholar
• Longoni C, Cian L (2022) Artificial intelligence in utilitarian vs. hedonic contexts: The “word-of-machine” effect. J. Marketing 86(1):91–108.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Matias JN (2019) Preventing harassment and increasing group participation through social norms in 2,190 online science discussions. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 116(20):9785–9789.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Meta (2025) Integrity reports, Third quarter 2024. https://transparency.meta.com/integrity-reports-q3-2024.Google Scholar
• Moens MF, Li J, Chua TS (2014) Mining User Generated Content (CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL).Crossref, Google Scholar
• Mudambi M, Viswanathan S (2022) Prominence reduction versus banning: An empirical investigation of content moderation strategies in online platforms. Proc. Int. Conf. Inf. Syst. (ICIS) (Association for Information Systems, Atlanta).Google Scholar
• Owen V (2026) What is UGC? The complete guide to user-generated content. The Bazaar Voice (January 13), https://www.bazaarvoice.com/blog/the-complete-guide-to-ugc/.Google Scholar
• Pu J, Chen Y, Qiu L, Cheng HK (2020) Does identity disclosure help or hurt user content generation? Social presence, inhibition, and displacement effects. Inform. Systems Res. 31(2):297–322.Link, Google Scholar
• Qiao D, Rui H (2023) Text performance on the vine stage? The effect of incentive on product review text quality. Inform. Systems Res. 34(2):676–697.Link, Google Scholar
• Qiao D, Lee SY, Whinston AB, Wei Q (2020) Financial incentives dampen altruism in online prosocial contributions: A study of online reviews. Inform. Systems Res. 31(4):1361–1375.Link, Google Scholar
• Qiu L, Chhikara A, Vakharia A (2021) Multidimensional observational learning in social networks: Theory and experimental evidence. Inform. Systems Res. 32(3):876–894.Link, Google Scholar
• Qiu L (2026a) AI-Empowered Corporate Social Media: Exploring Internal and External Strategy (Palgrave Macmillan, London).Crossref, Google Scholar
• Qiu L (2026b) When social technology meets artificial intelligence: Foundations, transformations, and a research agenda. Artificial Intelligence Machine Learn. Robotics Bus. 2(1):24–35.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Rains SA (2013) The nature of psychological reactance revisited: A meta-analytic review. Human Comm. Res. 39(1):47–73.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Reddit (2017) Some insights into subreddit and moderator numbers. Accessed March 1, 2026, https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/5yi292.Google Scholar
• Reddit (2020) Sorry, this post has been removed by the moderators of r/###. Accessed March 1, 2026, https://www.reddit.com/r/ModSupport/comments/ey97wj.Google Scholar
• Reddit (2022) What’s a moderator? Accessed March 1, 2026, https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204533859-What-s-a-mod erator.Google Scholar
• Reddit (2023) User management - Banning and muting. Accessed March 1, 2026, https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/15484464549524-User-Management-banning-and-muting.Google Scholar
• Reddit (2024) Removal reasons. Accessed March 1, 2026, https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/15484471320980-Removal-Reasons.Google Scholar
• Rivera M, Guo X, Shan G, Qiu L (2025) Stimulating feedback contributions using digital nudges: A field experiment in a real-time mobile feedback platform. MIS Quart., ePub ahead of print September 20, https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2025/18920.Google Scholar
• Robinson R (2024) Content moderation 101: Why it matters and how to implement it. Accessed March 1, 2026, https://flockler.com/blog/what-is-content-moderation.Google Scholar
• Rosen G (2022) Integrity and transparency reports, third quarter 2022. Meta (November 22), https://about.fb.com/news/2022/11/integrity-and-transparency-reports-q3-2022/.Google Scholar
• Rosenberg BD, Siegel JT (2023) Threatening uncertainty and psychological reactance: Are freedom threats always noxious? Current Psych. 42(5):3968–3977.Google Scholar
• Ryu C, Kim YJ, Chaudhury A, Rao HR (2005) Knowledge acquisition via three learning processes in enterprise information portals: Learning-by-investment, learning-by-doing, and learning-from-others. MIS Quart. 29(2):245–278.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Sahoo N, Dellarocas C, Srinivasan S (2018) The impact of online product reviews on product returns. Inform. Systems Res. 29(3):723–738.Link, Google Scholar
• Seering J, Kraut R, Dabbish L (2017) Shaping pro and anti-social behavior on Twitch through moderation and example-setting. Proc. 2017 ACM Conf. Comput. Supported Cooperative Work Soc. Comput. (ACM, New York).Google Scholar
• Shan G, Qiu L (2025) Examining the impact of generative AI on users’ voluntary knowledge contribution: Evidence from a natural experiment on Stack Overflow. Inform. Systems Res., ePub ahead of print September 24, https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2023.0332.Link, Google Scholar
• Shan G, Wattal S, Thatcher JB (2022) How does anonymizing crowdsourced users’ identity affect fact-checking on social media platforms? A regression discontinuity analysis. Proc. Int. Conf. Inf. Syst. (ICIS).Google Scholar
• Song T, Huang J, Tan Y, Yu Y (2019) Using user-and marketer-generated content for box office revenue prediction: Differences between microblogging and third-party platforms. Inform. Systems Res. 30(1):191–203.Link, Google Scholar
• Steers RM, Mowday RT, Shapiro DL (2004) The future of work motivation theory. Acad. Management Rev. 29(3):379–387.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Stepanov A (2021) Sharing our content distribution guidelines (September 23), https://about.fb.com/news/2021/09/content-distribution-guidelines/.Google Scholar
• Tasioulas J (2006) Punishment and repentance. Philosophy 81(2):279–322.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Wang W, Benbasat I (2009) Interactive decision aids for consumer decision making in e-commerce: The influence of perceived strategy restrictiveness. MIS Quart. 33(2):293–320.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Wang J, Shan Z, Gupta M, Rao HR (2019) A longitudinal study of unauthorized access attempts on information systems: The role of opportunity contexts. MIS Quart. 43(2):601–622.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Williams LK (2024) How to prevent social media spam from damaging your brand. Agorapulse (January 12), https://www.agorapulse.com/blog/prevent-social-media-spam/.Google Scholar
• Wu J, Zheng Z, Zhao JL (2021) FairPlay: Detecting and deterring online customer misbehavior. Inform. Systems Res. 32(4):1323–1346.Link, Google Scholar
• Xue Y, Liang H, Wu L (2011) Punishment, justice, and compliance in mandatory IT settings. Inform. Systems Res. 22(2):400–414.Link, Google Scholar
• Yang M, Ren Y, Adomavicius G (2019) Understanding user-generated content and customer engagement on Facebook business pages. Inform. Systems Res. 30(3):839–855.Link, Google Scholar
• Yin D, Bond SD, Zhang H (2021) Anger in consumer reviews: Unhelpful but persuasive? MIS Quart. 45(3):1059–1086.Crossref, Google Scholar
• Zafft R (2022) Twitter, Facebook, et al: The case for freelance content moderation. Forbes (October 12), https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertzafft/2022/10/09/twitter-facebook-et-al-the-case-for-free lance-content-moderation/?sh=687287f24de6.Google Scholar
• Zeng X, Wei L (2013) Social ties and user content generation: Evidence from Flickr. Inform. Systems Res. 24(1):71–87.Link, Google Scholar
• Zeng Z, Dai H, Zhang DJ, Zhang H, Zhang R, Xu Z, Shen ZJM (2023) The impact of social nudges on user-generated content for social network platforms. Management Sci. 69(9):5189–5208.Link, Google Scholar
• Zhang X, Wei Z, Du Q, Zhang J (2022) Social media moderations, user ban, and content generation: Evidence from Zhihu. Hawaii Internat. Conf. System Sci. (Maui, Hawaii), 1–10.Google Scholar