First International Conference on the Philosophy of Content Moderation

April 12 to April 15 2025, Asilomar Hotel and Conference Grounds

To celebrate its second anniversary, PhilMod held the first international conference on the philosophy of content moderation at the Asilomar Conference Grounds from April 12th to April 15th, 2025. We are currently looking for sources of funding to hold our second conference in 2026 or 2027. Thanks to all participants (pictured below)!

Organizers

  • Étienne Brown (San José State University)

  • Hanna Kiri Gunn (UC Merced)

  • Jeffrey Howard (UCL)

Speakers

  • Michael Swenson (Reddit): Communities of Virtue: Identity and Moral Formation for Community Moderators

  • Sean Donahue (ANU): Platform Tyranny, Rule of Law, and Virtual Community

  • Jennifer Saul (University of Waterloo): Dogwhistles, Figleaves and Content Moderation

  • Michael Randall Barnes (Notre Dame University): Responsibility for Recommendations

  • Diana Acosta Navas (Loyola University Chicago): Bridging Over Troubled Waters

  • Scott Aikin (Vanderbilt University): An Arguer's Model of Free Speech

  • Mark Satta (Wayne State University): Freedom of Discussion on Social Media Platforms

  • Conor Sanchez (Meta): A Framework for Behavior-based Online Enforcement

  • Chloé Bakalar (Meta): The Right to AI Free Speech

  • Elizabeth Stewart (University of Canterbury): What Fact Checkers Check: From Truth to Justification

  • Subbu Vincent (Santa Clara University): Democratizing Digital News Distribution: Norms and Supply Chains

  • Jonathan Gingerich (Rutgers University/UCL): Spontaneous Freedom and Content Moderation

  • Christopher Bousquet (Syracuse University): Social Media Moderation and Political Equality: The Case Against Viewpoint-Based Regulations

  • Juan Espindola Mata (UNAM): Weapons of Cartel Destruction: Content Moderation and Drug Trafficking

  • James Gresham: Incentives in Trust & Safety Operations: Alignments, Misalignments, and Their Impacts on Stakeholders

Discussants

  • Tim Aylsworth (Florida International U.)

  • Clinton Castro (University of Wisconsin at Madison)

  • Nikolas Kirby (University of Glasgow)

  • Hannah McHugh (University of Utrecht)

  • Stefano Merlo (LSE)

  • Bilyana Petkova (University of National and World Economy in Bulgaria)

  • Rob Reich (Stanford University)

  • Rachel Sterken (University of Hong Kong)