Public Engagement in Social Media Policy Through Game Play: A Citizen Panel Case Study

Abstract: Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act has become the subject of intense public policy debate. Like much of science and technology policy, the debate focuses on the perspectives of experts (Kleinman, 2007). Though traditional means of engaging citizens in public policy such as citizen panels may be a promising method for increasing public engagement in debates about Section 230, citizen panels rely on quickly disseminating background educational materials to participants (Sclove, 1996).

Disseminating educational materials to scaffold the citizen panel process can highlight inequities that plague participatory governance methods, as some participants have more time to engage with materials (Jefferson Center, 2004). This case study combines the traditional citizen panel process (Sclove, 1996) with a serious game (Abt, 1987), to explore if and how games can prepare participants from diverse backgrounds to engage in technology policy discourse.

Guided by Flanagan and Nissembaum’s “Values at Play” framework (2014), we have designed and tested a card game in which participants debate, experience, and make decisions about platform governance, titled Content Moderation by Design (CMbD). We then convened nine participants for a day-long virtual citizen panel. The effectiveness of the panel was evaluated on factors such as knowledge generation and democratic discourse using survey results and a qualitative analysis of the event recordings. We found that after playing the game, participants were able to relate to a wider range of viewpoints and suggest diverse policy options which were compiled into a report and delivered to lawmakers.

game theoryhuman-computer interactionsocial and information networkslaw and economics

Audience: researchers in the topic

( chat | video )

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Metagovernance Seminar

Series comments: The Metagovernance Seminar invites individuals working in online governance to present their work to a community of other researchers and practitioners. Topics of the seminar include, but are not limited to, computational tools for governance, governance incidents and case studies from online communities, topics in cryptoeconomics, and the design of digital constitutions.

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