Content Moderation Case Study: Understanding Cultural Context To Detect Satire (2020)

Content Moderation Case Study: Understanding Cultural Context To Detect Satire (2020)

3 years ago
Anonymous $y15ULlV7sG

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20201230/15283145975/content-moderation-case-study-understanding-cultural-context-to-detect-satire-2020.shtml

Summary: During the somewhat controversial Senate confirmation hearings for the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, there were a few moments that gained extra attention, including a confrontation between Senator Mazie Hirono and the nominee concerning statements regarding LGBTQ rights that Barrett had made in the past. Hirono, who had separately called the hearings themselves illegitimate, was then criticized by traditionally right-leaning media for what they felt was overly aggressive questioning.

The satirical site The Babylon Bee, which frequently targets Democrats for satirization, published a piece roughly parodying a famous Monty Python sketch in which villagers in a medieval town try to determine if someone is a witch, including by weighing them to see if they weigh the same as a duck. The Babylon Bee took that sketch’s premise and ran a satirical article claiming that Hirono demanded that Barrett be weighed against a duck.