Work

Topic territoriality and the cost of civility: examining the impact of IP address disclosure on Weibo

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: This article introduces the concept of “topic territoriality,” a mechanism that governs participation in conversational spaces. When a discussion becomes prone to territorialization, individuals are more likely to claim topics (participating in discussions about topics they own as “stakeholders”) and defer (reducing participation in topics owned by others). They are also more likely to patrol topic boundaries (monitoring who is participating and confronting topic “intruders”). We document the operation of topic territoriality by analyzing 112,278 conversational turns on Weibo before and after a policy that reveals users’ broad geographic locations. We find that revealing these locations increased territorial behaviors, leading to more homogenous participation in conversations. Although the display of locations has improved the overall civility in language, the confrontations between stakeholders and intruders became more toxic. Our research emphasizes the impact of topic territoriality in online conversations and sheds light on the unintended consequences of social media policies.

Source: Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

DOI: 10.1093/jcmc/zmae018

Authors: Chao Yu, Drew Margolin

Institutions: Northwestern University, Cornell University

Language: English

Topic: Social Media and Politics

Subfield: Communication

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: diamond

Funder: National Science Foundation