Voice Asks Users to Vote on Objectionable Content

Blockchain-based social media platform, Voice, will ask its user community to weigh in on whether it believes a post is objectionable and should be removed.


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LONDON (Bywire News) - At a time when social media sites are coming under growing pressure to police, the content on their platform, the new kid on the block Voice.com has come up with an innovative solution. It’s one that draws deeply on the blockchain spirit of community engagement and democracy. 

Under a new experimental pilot called ‘Community Reporting,’ they will involve their community in deciding which content is objectionable. When a user reports content, it will kick off a community poll as well as a review by their Trust & Safety team. Voice users will be able to offer their opinions about whether a piece crosses the line. 

For example, at the bottom of a post which has been reported, you’ll see a short message saying ‘this post has been reported as objectionable. What do you think?’ Once you weigh-in, you’ll see how other community members voted. 

“Community Reporting is a simple first step and an important milestone on our journey to a self-governed Voice platform,” wrote Brian Allen Hazzard, Director of Product Management at Voice. “There’s a lot more to come: we have plans to allow users to classify content for specific violations, use polling data to determine how to treat content, and add mechanisms to combat abuse concerns.”

This new development will tackle many of the concerns surrounding how social media platforms treat objectionable content. Earlier this month, Twitter drew criticism when it stated any account wishing Donald Trump dead after his Coronavirus diagnosis would be banned. Users were quick to highlight examples of extreme content, including death threats, that the platform had allowed to go unpunished. 

Voice’s solution would give power back to the community. It would enable users to decide if they thought a post was problematic and if the platform should take action. It is this, along with other innovations in transparency, which helps it stand out from the social media crowd.

“At Voice, we value freedom of speech, and we also take seriously our responsibility to cultivate a safe place for our users to engage in meaningful discussion,” added Hazzard. “So as we continue to design a self-governing platform, we will balance these requirements with your input.” 

(Written by Tom Cropper, Edited by Klaudia Fior)

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