From civility to parity: Marxist-feminist ethics for context-aware algorithmic content moderation

Dayei Oh


Abstract
Algorithmic content moderation governs online speech on large-scale commercial platforms, often under the guise of neutrality. Yet, it routinely reproduces white, middle-class norms of civility and penalizes marginalized voices for unruly and resistant speech. This paper critiques the prevailing ‘pathological’ approach to moderation that prioritizes sanitization over justice. Drawing on Marxist-feminist ethics, this paper advances three theses for the future of context-aware algorithmic moderation: (1) prioritizing participatory parity over civility, (2) incorporating identity- and context-aware analysis of speech; and (3) replacing purely numerical evaluations with justice-oriented, community-sensitive metrics. While acknowledging the structural limitations posed by platform capitalism, this paper positions the proposed framework as both critique and provocation, guiding regulatory reform, civil advocacy, and visions for mission-driven online content moderation serving digital commons.
Anthology ID:
2025.woah-1.3
Volume:
Proceedings of the The 9th Workshop on Online Abuse and Harms (WOAH)
Month:
August
Year:
2025
Address:
Vienna, Austria
Editors:
Agostina Calabrese, Christine de Kock, Debora Nozza, Flor Miriam Plaza-del-Arco, Zeerak Talat, Francielle Vargas
Venues:
WOAH | WS
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Publisher:
Association for Computational Linguistics
Note:
Pages:
32–40
Language:
URL:
https://preview.aclanthology.org/landing_page/2025.woah-1.3/
DOI:
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Dayei Oh. 2025. From civility to parity: Marxist-feminist ethics for context-aware algorithmic content moderation. In Proceedings of the The 9th Workshop on Online Abuse and Harms (WOAH), pages 32–40, Vienna, Austria. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):
From civility to parity: Marxist-feminist ethics for context-aware algorithmic content moderation (Oh, WOAH 2025)
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PDF:
https://preview.aclanthology.org/landing_page/2025.woah-1.3.pdf