Digital Discourse Dilemmas: Moderating Slovenian Digital Landscapes

“Larger digital media organizations have developed sophisticated in-house moderation systems with fine-grained controls. Smaller ones tend to shift user comments to social media platforms where the toolset is limited,” observes Zoran Fijavž in his article Digital Discourse Dilemmas: Moderating Slovenian Digital Landscapes, published in the thematic section on hate speech in the latest issue of Annales.

Zoran Fijavž analyzes how Slovenian digital media manage hate speech under the EU Digital Services Act, based on interviews and document analysis. His findings highlight four dimensions:

(a) moderation extends beyond illegal hate speech to incivility and offensive content;

(b) large outlets use advanced systems, while smaller ones rely on social media with weaker controls;

(c) a paradox in the law shows that, by late 2024, no takedown orders were issued for Facebook by Slovenian authorities, while local media faced stricter policing; and

(d) moderators endure psychological strain and harassment amid resource shortages.

The study shows that hate-speech governance has been privatized, shifting responsibility from the state to precariously resourced media workers. It situates online moderation within the political economy of digital capitalism, revealing how infrastructural inequality shapes which hate speech is removed and which persists.