Flag interfaces cannot express civic defense of troubling content
Evidence
A flag, in its purest form, is an objection. There is not, for example, a flag to indicate that something is, while perhaps troubling, nonetheless worth preserving. The vocabulary of complaint offers no way to express wanting to defend something that may be offensive, but is also necessary from a civic perspective. Nor do complaints account for the many complex reasons why people might choose to flag content for reasons other than being offended. — Tarleton Gillespie, Custodians of the Internet, 286
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Flagging systems transform users into amateur editors and police — Tarleton Gillespie, Custodians of the Internet: Platforms,…, 630; Every user photo on major platforms is screened against a known-child-pornography database — Tarleton Gillespie, Custodians of the Internet: Platforms,…, 312; Political symbols split into consensus-building versus conflict-marking functions