Reporting Offensive Content in Social Networks: Toward a Reputation-Based Assessment Approach

Social network users can report other users´ content as inappropriate by arguing that it encroaches on their privacy rights. Blindly accepting such reports as real evidence of something offensive poses substantial risks; malicious users might report harmless content just to compromise that material. The large number of users who flag content as offensive makes moderation difficult for human administrators. The authors´ reputation-based approach automatically assesses accusers´ honesty before a social networking site withdraws any reported content. It encourages honest users to report inappropriate content by increasing their reputation within the system.