Why Do Virtual Communities Regulate Speech?

Abstract

Virtual community research argues that regulations restricting the kinds of speech in a virtual community decrease the utility to members. However, many virtual communities enact regulations on speech within the virtual community. This research explores the contradiction through a cross-case analysis of virtual communities. It explains the contradiction between research and practice using the theory of collective identity. Communication is important for creating collective identity in virtual communities. However, multiple collective identities can arise. When one collective identity within a virtual community defines itself as adversarial to another, silencing speech emerges as adversarial collective identity creates enduring noise and flames. When the target collective identity creates formal regulations suppressing the adversarial collective identity, communication to foster the target collective identity emerges.

Keywords:

• Virtual Communities
• Moderation
• Censorship
• Hate Speech
• Regulation

Acknowledgements

This paper received assistance from numerous sources. I would like to thank Pok Hongling, Tay Yi Pei, and Tin Pay Yng for coding. I would also like to thank Andrew Burton-Jones, Boh Wai Fong, Suay Bah Chua, Goh Kim Huat, Lim Wee Kiat, Mark L. Gillenson, Cindy Levey, Mark Keil, Ron Rice, and Christina Soh for comments and insights on earlier drafts of this paper. I benefited from comments from various individuals at OASIS 2004 especially Lynette Kvasny, and Noriko Hara. I am also grateful to members of the Jewish Usenet community for reading and commentary including Jonathan Baker, Ken Bloom, Henry Goodman, Chanoch Kesselman, Dan Kimmel, David Roth, Moshe Schorr and those who wish to remain anonymous. Finally, I am grateful for interviews with members of the Singapore Usenet community including Wynthia Goh, Tan Chong Kee, William Anthony Timmins, and Xiao Jinhong. Any mistakes or omissions are the sole responsibility of the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cecil Eng Huang Chua

Cecil Eng Huang Chua is an Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University. He received a PhD in Information Systems from Georgia State University, a Masters of Business by Research from Nanyang Technological University, and both a BBA in Computer Information Systems and Economics and a Masters Certificate in Telecommunications Management from the University of Miami. His research has been published in such journals and magazines as Communications of the AIS, Data and Knowledge Engineering, Decision Support Systems, IEEE Computer, Journal of the AIS, the Journal of Database Management, the MIS Quarterly, and the VLDB Journal. He was the runner-up for the 2004 ICIS best doctoral dissertation competition