The DOI matches its Crossref record; 97 of the 101 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Moderation Practices as Emotional Labor in Sustaining Online Communities: The Case of AAPI Identity Work on Reddit
Abstract
We examine how and why Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) moderators on Reddit shape the norms of their online communities through the analytic lens of emotional labor. We conduct interviews with 21 moderators who facilitate identity work discourse in AAPI subreddits and present a thematic analysis of their moderation practices. We report on their challenges to sustaining moderation, which include burning out from volunteer work, navigating hierarchical structures, and balancing unfulfilled expectations. We then describe strategies that moderators employ to manage emotional labor, which involve distancing away from drama, building solidarity from shared struggles, and integrating an ecology of tools for self-organized moderation. We provide recommendations for improving moderation in online communities centered around identity work and discuss implications of emotional labor in the design of Reddit and similar platforms.
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“To date, there have been few academic studies that explore what impacts the demands of the job might engender and many that have been conducted have focused on the experience of volunteer CMs (e.g., Dosono & Semaan, 2019; Lo, 2018; Wohn, 2019).”
From The psychological impacts of content moderation on content moderators: A qualitative study (2023) · cites this paper as Dosono & Semaan, 2019
In the citing paper
“More broadly, moderators have reported feeling burnout and emotionally exhausted (Dosono & Semaan, 2019; Riedl et al., 2020; Schöpke-Gonzalez et al., 2022), apathy (Lo, 2018) and underappreciated (Wohn, 2019), as well as being harassed by users or feeling guilty for enforcing rules or taking actions they do not necessarily agree with (Dosono & Semaan, 2019; Wohn, 2019).”
From The psychological impacts of content moderation on content moderators: A qualitative study (2023) · cites this paper as Dosono & Semaan, 2019
In the citing paper
“Many of the impacts described by CMs are in line with the symptoms described by volunteer moderators (Dosono & Semaan, 2019; Schöpke-Gonzalez et al., 2022).”
From The psychological impacts of content moderation on content moderators: A qualitative study (2023) · cites this paper as Dosono & Semaan, 2019
In the citing paper
“Research with volunteer moderators found they experience cognitive changes like increased apathy and guilt (Dosono & Semaan, 2019; Lo, 2018).”
From The psychological impacts of content moderation on content moderators: A qualitative study (2023) · cites this paper as Dosono & Semaan, 2019
In the citing paper
“Academic research has highlighted that content reviewers experience high-stress levels, fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, low mood, increased apathy, guilt, and intrusive images as part of their everyday work [18,39,45,112,168].”
From Measuring the Mental Health of Content Reviewers, a Systematic Review (2025) · cites this paper as [45]
In the citing paper
“For example, volunteer content moderators tend to experience burnout [45], apathy [112], under-appreciation, guilt [189], and a lack of safety [21,162].”
From Measuring the Mental Health of Content Reviewers, a Systematic Review (2025) · cites this paper as [45]
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Human-Machine Collaboration for Content Regulation: The Case of Reddit Automoderator
Jhaver, S., Birman, I., Gilbert, E., & Bruckman, A. (2019) · ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction · doi:10.1145/3338243 · Cited by 289
For You, or For"You"?: Everyday LGBTQ+ Encounters with TikTok
Simpson, E., & Semaan, B. (2021) · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1145/3432951 · Cited by 230
Self-citationScheuerman, M. K., Wade, K., Lustig, C., & Brubaker, J. R. (2020) · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1145/3392866 · Cited by 193
Steiger, M., Bharucha, T. J., Venkatagiri, S., Riedl, M. J., & Lease, M. (2021) · Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3411764.3445092 · Cited by 222
Seering, J. (2020) · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1145/3415178 · Cited by 174
Metadata
- Authors
- Dosono, B., & Semaan, B.
- Affiliations
- Syracuse University (US)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2019-05-02
- Pages
- 1-13
- OpenAlex
- W2941349974
- Cited by
- 178
- References
- 101
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 4
- FWCI
- 47.75
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Emotional Labor in Professions
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Economy and Work Transformation
- Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Digital Communication and Language
- Keywords
- emotional labor, online community moderation, identity work, volunteer burnout, solidarity, platform design
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