Download:
##### Abstract:
Residents of communities increasingly rely on geographically focused groups on online social media platforms to access local information. These local groups have the potential to enhance the quality of life in communities by helping residents learn about their communities, connect with neighbors and local organizations, and identify important local issues. Moderators of online community groups—typically untrained volunteers—are key actors in these spaces. However, they are also put in a tenuous position, having to manage the groups while simultaneously navigating desires of platforms, rapidly evolving user practices, and the increasing politicization of local issues. In this paper, we explicate the visions of local community groups put forward by Facebook, Reddit, and NextDoor in their corporate discourse and ask: How do these platforms describe local community groups, particularly in reference to ideal communication and community engagement that occurs within them, and how do they position volunteer moderators to help realize these ideals? Through a qualitative thematic analysis of 849 company documents published between 2012 and 2023, we trace how each company rhetorically positions these spaces as what we refer to as a local platformized utopias. We examine how this discourse positions local volunteer moderators, the volunteer labor-force of civic actors that constructs, governs, and grows community groups. We discuss how these three social media companies motivate moderators to do this free, value-building labor through the promise of civic virtue; simultaneously obscuring unequal burdens of moderation labor and failing to address the inequalities of access to voice and power in online life.
##### Citation
Proferes, N., Cotter, K., Thorson, K., De, A., Chang, C.-F., & Battocchio, A. F. (2025). Local platformized utopias? Corporate discourse, community groups, and volunteer moderation on Facebook, Reddit, and NextDoor. Platforms & Society, 2, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/29768624251356761
```BibTeX
@article{proferesLocalPlatformizedUtopias2025,
title = {Local platformized utopias? Corporate discourse, community groups, and volunteer moderation on Facebook, Reddit, and NextDoor},
author = {Proferes, Nicholas and Cotter, Kelley and Thorson, Kjerstin and De, Ankolika and Chang, Chia-Fang and Battocchio, Ava Francesca},
date = {2025},
journaltitle = {Platforms \& Society},
volume = {2},
pages = {1--17},
doi = {10.1177/29768624251356761}}
```