Social Media and Boundaries of Reading/Writing in Comment Moderation

Abstract

This article analyzes how social media shape the boundaries of reading and writing through the moderation of political comments. The authors compare practices across X, YouTube, Twitch, and Instagram, emphasizing the materiality of the platforms and their hybrid logics that combine algorithmic automation with human intervention. Moderation is approached as an active orchestration of reading and writing, influencing the visibility and legitimacy of public expression while modulating the accessibility and ordering of comments. The authors highlight the methodological challenges inherent in studying moderation practices and propose linking a semiotics of screen writings to interpret the materiality of traces left by moderation processes, emphasizing their fragmentary nature. Three case studies illustrate how the disappearance, ranking, or modulation of comments question the visibility and legitimacy of political discourse online.