What Others Afford: Sociotechnical shaping of normative processes on social media platforms

Abstract

Social media platforms increasingly delegate content moderation responsibilities to users, yet we have limited understanding of how platform architectures shape users' capacity to govern each other through social norms. This thesis examines how social media users collectively negotiate what constitutes acceptable behavior and content through platform-mediated normative processes. Drawing on social norm theory and affordance research, this study develops the concept of ‘social norm affordances’ that enable users to shape other users' behavior. Through platform audits, qualitative interviews, and theoretical synthesis across multiple platforms, the research identifies first four, later condensed to three key affordances, which can operate as two-stage shaping phenomena. Platforms thereby mediate users' capacity to shape other users' experiences, which is subject to users’ impression of what norms they should comply with. This research reveals how the mechanisms of social norm affordances influence the capacity for user self-governance through normative contestation. These insights have implications for platform design, content moderation policy, and understanding the conditions under which users can effectively deal with contemporary issues like hatespeech, radicalization and disinformation in digital environments.