¿ì²¥³ÉÈË

Isaac Slaughter is a Ph.D student at the iSchool.

When you meet someone who doesn’t know about your research, how do you describe it?

I study how content moderation systems on social media platforms affect users. I focus on tools that let everyday users cooperatively flag and clarify misleading content, allowing people to quickly contextualize posts they find misleading. A system like this in operation at X, and similar systems are being trialed at YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

Who is the faculty member working closest with you? What are you learning from them?

Dr. Martin Saveski is my advisor and the faculty member working most closely with me. Some tips I've picked up: done is better than perfect; research tends to be better quality (and more fun) when it's social; a little time spent planning can save a lot of time writing and coding. 

Why are you interested in this subject?

After years of research documenting and attempting to address misinformation on social media, people still feel frustrated by the quality of what they come across online. Platforms seem to be embracing cooperative content moderation as a solution, so it's important to understand whether it actually helps!

What impact do you hope to make in the information field through your research/dissertation?

As more platforms adopt these systems, I hope my research sheds light on how they work—and don’t—in practice. What types of content do they do poorly with? What features make them effective?  Are they ready to scale?

What surprised you the most when digging into your research?

I was surprised to learn how quickly social media content becomes stale—often within days—and how quickly cooperative annotations can be added. That appears to be one of the advantages that these tools have over traditional fact-checking, which can often be too slow to reach viewers.

What are your career goals once you graduate?

My priorities are being in a healthy and collaborative working environment, conducting research that improves people's lives, and having enough independence that I can find interesting problems to address. I've been feeling more drawn to research jobs in industry lately—but I’m keeping an open mind.