"I Got Flagged for Supposed Bullying, Even Though It Was in Response to Someone Harassing Me About My Disability.": A Study of Blind TikTokers' Content Moderation Experiences
Yao Lyu, Jie Cai, Anisa Callis, Kelley Cotter, John M. Carroll
TL;DR
This paper investigates how blind TikTok users, termed BlindTokers, experience content moderation and how these experiences reflect broader accessibility and fairness issues in platform governance. Using a year-long ethnography and semi-structured interviews with 20 BlindTokers, the authors perform thematic analysis to identify two core themes: contextual moderation experiences (technically induced and socially induced) and BlindTokers' reactions, including coping and initiative. Through a transformative justice lens, the study reveals systemic factors driving moderation harms and proposes design interventions—ranging from accessible notifications and public education to a balanced human-AI moderation approach. The findings illuminate how inaccessible platform design and troll harassment interact to marginalize disabled users, offering concrete directions to enhance inclusivity and accountability in moderation systems.
Abstract
The Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community has consistently focused on the experiences of users moderated by social media platforms. Recently, scholars have noticed that moderation practices could perpetuate biases, resulting in the marginalization of user groups undergoing moderation. However, most studies have primarily addressed marginalization related to issues such as racism or sexism, with little attention given to the experiences of people with disabilities. In this paper, we present a study on the moderation experiences of blind users on TikTok, also known as "BlindToker," to address this gap. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 BlindTokers and used thematic analysis to analyze the data. Two main themes emerged: BlindTokers' situated content moderation experiences and their reactions to content moderation. We reported on the lack of accessibility on TikTok's platform, contributing to the moderation and marginalization of BlindTokers. Additionally, we discovered instances of harassment from trolls that prompted BlindTokers to respond with harsh language, triggering further moderation. We discussed these findings in the context of the literature on moderation, marginalization, and transformative justice, seeking solutions to address such issues.