Exploring self-harm on Twitter (X): Content moderation and its psychological effects on adolescents

David Atauri-Mezquida 1, Celia Nogales-González 2, Esther Martínez-Pastor 3 *
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1 University Rey Juan Carlos, Móstoles, SPAIN
2 University Rey Juan Carlos, Alcorcón, SPAIN
3 University Rey Juan Carlos, Fuenlabrada, SPAIN
* Corresponding Author
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, Volume 15, Issue 1, Article No: e202503. https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/15867
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ABSTRACT

The number of non-suicidal self-injuries (NSSI) has grown exponentially in the last two decades, especially in the young population. Likewise, the number of textual tweets and images in photography and video has increased, to share the experience of self-harm. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the posts on self-harm on Twitter is presented. The objective is to make visible the importance of this growing phenomenon among young people and to discuss its psychological and behavioral impact on the individual, as well as to analyze whether Twitter has adequate content controls in accordance with its conduct policies. 32,231 tweets were collected between 24 November 2022, and 29 January 2023, containing four keywords: “selfharm”, “shtwt”, “goretwt”, and “ouchietwt”. An average of 725 daily tweets were found. These tweets were posted by a total of 11,749 different users. Of those published, only 3,859 tweets (8.3%) were blocked by Twitter’s content moderation procedures, and they did so only after having produced a high number of impressions and reactions in the community. No coherence was found between the tweets blocked due to their sensitive or non-sensitive load, or between Twitter’s criteria for blocking tweets and those that are finally deleted. By number of posts, the violence of the messages, photographs, videos, and the interactions produced because of these, the importance of the procedures of moderation and supervision of content by Twitter are discussed, in terms of the danger and the psychological impact on the users.
Keywords: self-harm (NSSI), X, Twitter, content moderation, psychological impact, shtwt

CITATION

Atauri-Mezquida, D., Nogales-González, C., & Martínez-Pastor, E. (2025). Exploring self-harm on Twitter (X): Content moderation and its psychological effects on adolescents. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 15(1), e202503. https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/15867

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