People who share encounters with racism are silenced online by humans and machines, but a guideline-reframing intervention holds promise

Significance Content moderation practices on social media risk silencing voices of historically marginalized groups. We find that posts in which users share personal experiences of racism are disproportionately flagged by both algorithms and humans. Not only does this hinder the potential of social media to give voice to marginalized communities, we also find that witnessing such suppression could exacerbate feelings of isolation, both online and offline. We offer a path to reduce flagging among users through a psychologically informed reframing of moderation guidelines. In an increasingly diverse nation where online interactions are commonplace, these findings highlight the need to foster more productive and inclusive conversations about race-based experiences and we demonstrate how content moderation practices can help or hinder this effort.