Community guidelines mainly signal users, advertisers, and lawmakers

Evidence

These guidelines are discursive performances, first and foremost. While platform moderators do point to them when they remove content or suspend users, the terms of service matter more when a decision is actually disputed. The primary purpose of the community guidelines is not arbitration. Instead, they constitute a gesture: to users, that the platform will honor and protect online speech and at the same time shield them from offense and abuse; to advertisers, that the platform is an environment friendly to their commercial appeals; and to lawmakers, to assure them of the platform’s diligence, such that no further regulation is necessary. — Tarleton Gillespie, Custodians of the Internet, 155

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Public scandals often merely license rules platforms already wanted — Tarleton Gillespie, Custodians of the Internet: Platforms,…, 228; Community guidelines function as a constitution crystallizing moderation through encounters — Tarleton Gillespie, Custodians of the Internet: Platforms,…, 148

Broader Connections

• Community guidelines function as a constitution crystallizing moderation through encounters #responds-to (0.75) — Tarleton Gillespie, Custodians of the Internet, 148