A Semi-Automated Content Moderation Workflow for Humanitarian Situation Assessments

Although online social media has been recognized as a source of information that is potentially relevant for humanitarian organizations, it remains to demonstrate positive impact. The authors argue that relevant information isn't yet incorporated effectively into decision-making because the key role of humanitarian situation assessment experts and their methodologies hasn't been sufficiently recognized and incorporated into information systems design. In particular, the authors focus on the content moderation process (i.e. on examining, correcting and enriching data and controlling its dissemination) and argue that existing systems, which often follow a human-is-the-loop approach, either lack automation support or flexibility. In contrast, they present an interactive, semi-automated content moderation workflow and an instantiating prototype that follows the human-is-the-loop approach and centers on assessment experts. The evaluation of the new system practitioner interviews and serious games suggests that it offers good compatibility with experts' work practices, moderation quality and flexibility.