Whose voices are heard? Gender disparities in platform-facilitated discrimination and content moderation

Context: Historically, cisgender men have maintained systemic social, cultural, and political privilege over other genders. Online discrimination serves as a mechanism for reinforcing this dominance. Content moderation plays a crucial role in shaping online experiences, yet the ways it may perpetuate or mitigate discrimination remain underexplored. Objective: This study examines how content moderation and discussions of discrimination vary across gendered online communities, with a focus on identifying differential impacts by gender group. Methods: We analyzed 124 subreddits spanning three gender groups—women, men, and gender minorities (GM). The analysis included manual annotation of 1,535 posts and machine learning classification of an additional 6,613 posts to assess the prevalence of user discussions regarding online discrimination and content moderation. Results: Women were most likely to report top-down moderation issues, such as bans and content removal, while GM users engaged more frequently with general moderation concerns. Time series analysis revealed that complaints about content moderation have increased over time, with the steepest rise among women users. These patterns demonstrate that moderation policies and enforcement impact gender groups differently. Conclusion: Our findings highlight the need for improvements in software engineering and user experience design for content moderation tools. Enhancing transparency, promoting equity, and enabling more user-driven moderation experiences are critical steps towards protecting marginalized groups against discrimination online.