Curbing social media expressions: Fueling antagonism among customers

Abstract

The customers are increasingly taking to social media to express their opinions, experiences, and expectations from product/service/brand/organizations. While organizations should see this as an opportunity for receiving unbiased opinions/experiences/expectations from the customers, they are also concerned about negative comments/expressions getting snowballed into major catastrophe for their products/services/brands. A significant number of organizations have started moderating content posted on pretext of expressing opinions/experiences/expectations of the customers. Essentially, this content moderation policy adopted by organizations entails removing negative expressions from their social media platforms before they become viral and reach wider audience damaging reputation. On the other hand, they promote positive expressions while acknowledging and thanking the customers for appreciating products/service/brand/organization. A customer who is essentially frustrated with experience of product/service/brand/organizations gets even more agitated when his/her expressions are removed on the pretext of content moderation policy adopted by the organizations. This aggrieved customer then starts searching for more social media platforms, which are unregulated or not controlled by the organizations and starts posting even more negative expressions tagging connections while requesting them to tag their connections as well. The customers understandingly demand to be heard, paid attention to and attended to. Absence of the acceptable grievance redressal mechanisms will further fuel antagonism among customers forcing them to brand negatively. At times, these activities have snowballed into major momentums or movements hitting the organizations very hard. Rather than focusing inward and looking at the problem from the perspective of solutions framework, organizations are doing more damage than good while removing negative expressions from the social media platforms. This research paper attempts to understand the possible repercussions of removing negative expressions from social media on the pretext of content moderation policy.