Censoring Political Opposition Online: Who Does it and Why
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Abstract
As ordinary citizens increasingly moderate online forums, blogs, and their own social media feeds, a new type of censoring has emerged wherein people selectively remove opposing political viewpoints from online contexts. In three studies of behavior on putative online forums, supporters of a political cause (e.g., abortion or gun rights) preferentially censored comments that opposed their cause. The tendency to selectively censor cause-incongruent online content was amplified among people whose cause-related beliefs were deeply rooted in or "fused with" their identities. Moreover, six additional identity-related measures also amplified the selective censoring effect. Finally, selective censoring emerged even when opposing comments were inoffensive and courteous. We suggest that because online censorship enacted by moderators can skew online content consumed by millions of users, it can systematically disrupt democratic dialogue and subvert social harmony.
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Even among people who maintain reasonably heterogeneous online and offline relationships, ego-defensive mechanisms such as selective disclosure and selective censorship could undermine the depolarizing potential of these networks.
“Thus, even among people who maintain reasonably heterogeneous online and offline relationships, ego-defensive mechanisms such as selective disclosure145 (and selective censorship) could undermine the depolarizing potential of these networks.”
From Cognitive–motivational mechanisms of political polarization in social-communicative contexts (2022) · cites this paper as [145]
The General discussion says selective censoring could limit exposure to different viewpoints and increase polarization, supporting that part of the claim. The paper does not establish selective disclosure or test whether this occurs among people with heterogeneous online and offline relationships. (LLM, conf=0.83)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredWhen people are given the opportunity to censor the political out-group, many take it, even when the comments made by out-group members are inoffensive.
“Other studies suggest that when people are given the opportunity to censor the political out-group, many take it, even when the comments made by out-group members are inoffensive145.”
From Cognitive–motivational mechanisms of political polarization in social-communicative contexts (2022) · cites this paper as [145]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Ashokkumar, A., Talaifar, S., Fraser, W. T., Landabur, R., Buhrmester, M., Gómez, Á., Paredes, B., & Swann, W. B.
- Affiliations
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- University of Chile (CL)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (ES)
- Universidad Complutense de Madrid (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Ashokkumar, Ashwini
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-11
- Volume
- 91
- Pages
- 104031
- ISSN
- 0022-1031
- PMC
- PMC7415017
- OpenAlex
- W3047912043
- Cited by
- 58
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 2
- Type
- posted content
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Universidad de Chile (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Spiral (Imperial College London) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- H2020 European Research Council
- National Science Foundation
- Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Communication › Social Media and Politics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- online forums, political opposition, social identity, political polarization, democratic dialogue, online content moderation, social media
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