"This knowledge brief showcases RNW Media's experience with online community moderation. It explains what community moderation means, why we believe it is an essential component of our Citizens' Voice programme, and the strategies we have developed together with our moderators to guide them in the work they do and the decisions they need to make. Also, we present results from research that we conducted on three of our communities to test the effectiveness of our approach. Lastly, our moderators working in Burundi, DRC and Mali share their experience and insights, showing how moderation goes in practice. They talk about the secret of being a good moderator and share the challenges they experience in their daily work. Citizens' Voice is active in Burundi, China, DRC, Egypt, Libya, Mali and Yemen and focuses on social cohesion and inclusive governance. Applying a user-centred approach and persuasive storytelling, Citizens' Voice creates and maintains digital platforms offering safe spaces where young women and men from across political, ethnic, racial, regional or religious divides can come together in a way which is often impossible in the offline space. In-country teams create multi-media content relevant to the local context to attract and engage young people via a variety of digital channels. Through moderated discussions, they encourage disparate groups to voice their opinions on issues of common interest both online and offline. To achieve impact, Citizens' Voice aims to engage the broadest possible spectrum of stakeholders at all levels." (Introduction)
1 Introduction, 3
2 Citizens' voice moderation strategy, 5
3 Moderation research, 7
4 Moderators' insights, 9