In this ever-growing digital world, content moderation services play a vital role in different types of organizations. It enhances customer security, upgrades brand reputation, increases user engagement and improves customer satisfaction.

Content moderation is monitoring and screening user-generated content posted inappropriately on different online platforms and it uses some pre-set guidelines. If your content is found to be illegal, inappropriate, or harassing on your website, then it is immediately removed by a content moderator. 
Different types of industries and organizations are using user-generated content to build brand reputation and to generate more revenue by building loyalty in users. People these days frequently use abusive languages on the internet and that’s why site owners or social media marketers need to remove them to improve customer experience.

Content moderation outsourcing services have not been given much importance by businesses in many cases. Changing inappropriate content that is posted online is one of the most important tasks that need to be performed by a content moderator to keep innocent users away from the shocking content. 

Not only AI technology but human intervention is also needed here to identify the ‘grey areas’ in the content as AI sometimes does not work in the same way as humans do.

How does content moderation work?

This process can be performed either by hiring a content moderation company or by using content moderation software that works under artificial intelligence (AI). It depends on the type of content, words, or phrases that are allowed by the brand or the number of posts they had to handle daily. 

Companies come up with their own modified guidelines or various content moderation trends followed by their competitors which their moderators have to follow regularly. An in-charge person keeps an eye on the online community and posts of their followers and then they perform monitoring and screening of the content to analyze what is to be kept and what is to be banned from that user-generated content. 

They use different content moderation methods and tools that are provided to them by the company to delete an offensive piece of content that does not follow community guidelines. If you choose a content moderation outsourcing company, then you can take the advantage of both AI and human power to deal with the massive volume of content and get it checked accurately.

In an AI-powered tool, a machine learning device reads words, phrases, keywords, videos, or images and then removes all the unwanted information from them.

Who performs the online content moderation?

Online content moderation is performed by content moderators who ensure that your end-users or organization is saved from false offers, abusive languages, or disturbing posts that are made by scammers. They follow a bunch of objectives and guidelines and then give a red or green light to the content which is uploaded by the users. 

They also ban or remove community members or followers who don’t follow the protocols and improve your brand’s reputation. Content moderation company has reliable and high-skilled content moderators who have a high level of analytical skills and exposure to the online community. 

Whether people are posting comments on the Facebook page, social media page, business page, or the website of your company, moderators have the decision-making power and adequate knowledge to handle multiple platforms easily. 
They also check vocabulary, spelling, or grammatical mistakes on website pages and also works on improving the blog posts as per the SEO standard by maintaining a connection with your audience.

5 Types of content moderation services

Various brands choose the type of content moderation services that is most suitable for their industry standards to maintain a connection with their audience.

1. Automated content moderation

It is the most common type of moderation service where computer vision, AI, and natural language processing are used. It does not only moderate your images but also screens the texts or images that contain texts. It helps to automatically review the content faster using AI technology. 

Any inappropriate content will be immediately flagged and removed by the automation software. On a downside, it has the absence of expertise or human judgment and it may not be able to perform a deeper level of interpretation of the content. 

This type of content moderation is used to speed up the process and support human moderators by performing tasks with greater accuracy.

2. Reactive content moderation

It is based on the end-user judgment and works based on the assumption of what is actively removed by the users and then it flags all the improper content posted on the website. 

Most of the time, organizations use only this type of content moderation as it builds up an online community without increasing the costs or moderation resources. It keeps a meticulous eye on fellow users who are using harmful posts with the help of a committed and loyal audience and removes all those unwanted posts.

3. Distributed content moderation

It is provided by the content moderation company where supervisors or senior content moderators cast their vote on certain submissions of content. The voting process is based on the average score or a result which determines if the post by a user is following the community guidelines or not. 

Distributed content moderation ensures high productivity and participation of members but it does not guarantee real-time posting security and thus is suitable only for small businesses. Here, the decision is not just in the hands of the content moderator but is taken by all the members.

4. Pre-moderation

In pre-moderation of content, a user who posts content on a website or a social media platform is first screened by the moderator before it goes live on the website to check if it follows their website and community guidelines. It is mostly chosen among all the content moderation services and it helps to avoid the posting of controversial or sensitive content on your website.

Moderators here double-check the content before it is made viewable to the public. It protects and grows your customer base and protects your company from any legal threats. On the contrary, it eliminates the possibility of discussion among the users or a real-time posting as the content moderators first review your content.

5. Post-moderation

In post moderation, the content of users will be monitored once it is posted on your website. Companies here use both AI and human moderators to flag any unwanted content on your website.

It increases the possibility of real-time conversation among users on a certain topic. It is best suitable for forums, social media platforms, or any other type of community-based channel. By using a specific tool, moderators here check the content and then quickly identify whether to delete a particular post or not. 

Businesses should consider choosing a content moderation outsourcing partner as a bulk of content has to be checked that requires a lot of manpower.

Conclusion

Moderation is not only about modifying content but it is also to manage your audience on the internet. A knowledgeable and experienced content moderator should also be capable of making a meaningful and effective interaction with the users. 

Content moderation is to perform a thorough review checking and verifying the content that is posted on your websites or digital platforms for the safety of your online community. It is performed by eligible content moderators as this task is highly sensitive.