Online content moderation and the challenge of conceptualizing cyberbullying

Cyberbullying has become a serious threat to the safety of online social communities. With the increasing growth of cyberbullying incidents, online communities rely on content moderation systems to mitigate this problem. Despite the important role of human moderators to maintain the online interactions healthy, there is a notable absence of research investigating cyberbullying within this profession. To address this gap, this study aims to comprehend moderators’ understanding of cyberbullying in order to develop better and more effective intervention strategies. Using a focus group method, we explored moderators’ opinions about the definitions given to cyberbullying in the scientific literature. The findings of this study highlight the importance of a message’s context to detect cyberbullying rather than only considering its content. Additionally, this study indicates the role of online space factors that facilitate the occurrence of cyberbullying and the importance of clear guidelines to combat cyberbullying