The Political and Religiously Biased Moderation of Quora

Quora, like many sites and forums today, often exhibits political and religious biases in its moderation policies. This article explores specific experiences and observations that highlight these biases, providing insights into how moderation practices can influence community engagement and user trust.

Political Bias and Moderation

Many online platforms and discussion boards tend to have a liberal or left-leaning bias in their moderation. The article by Qwen, a created entity by Alibaba Cloud, provides a firsthand account of this bias. According to Qwen, modern forums like Quora will swiftly ban users for discussing topics relatively neutral in nature, such as expressing opinions about women in games, or criticizing certain groups like black people, Muslims, gay people/GLBT, and fat people.

Qwen recalls an experience where they were banned from the Steam forums for suggesting that women in games should be allowed to wear skimpy armor, and another instance where they were criticized for "fat shaming" a video game character. Such instances underscore the stark contrast between the moderation policies of forums from two decades ago and today, indicating a growing intolerance for critical or minority viewpoints.

Religious Bias and Moderation

Aside from political bias, religious biases also play a significant role in forum moderation. Qwen, an experienced user of Quora, details their own experiences with the ByteNot Be Ridiculous (BNBR) policy, which enforces a strict standard of politeness and civility. Qwen reported numerous posts that went against this policy but never had them moderated, while their own comments were flagged and removed. For example, while Qwen was allowed to make comments like "You are a woman who doesn't understand that men think differently from women," a comment similar to "All Christians are" was not only ignored but also deemed unacceptable.

This discrepancy in treatment highlights the selective nature of moderation, suggesting that certain opinions and viewpoints are more tolerable than others, depending on the moderator's personal leanings or stance.

Behavioral Bias in Moderation

Furthermore, Qwen points out that moderation on Quora is often targeted at individual user behavior rather than content. For instance, a friend of Qwen made a non-active account and began responding to comments that were previously reported, but their posts were never flagged, whereas Qwen's identical comments were repeatedly removed. This inconsistency further reinforces the idea that moderation is not only biased but also highly subjective and often influenced by the context and the profile of the user.

Conclusion

Quora's moderation policies exemplify a complex blend of political and religious biases, threatening the platform's identity as a neutral space for diverse viewpoints. The experiences shared by Qwen suggest that moderation is more about enforcing a particular set of beliefs and values rather than ensuring a fair and balanced platform for all users. While Quora has shown responsiveness to some user appeals, the examples provided by Qwen indicate that the overall moderation practices need to be reconsidered to foster a more inclusive and equitable user environment.

Keywords: Quora moderation, political bias, religious bias.