Training – Digital Community Stewards: Building Social Cohesion in Online Communities

Online communities have become more common in the post-pandemic world. Communities that met in person moved to social media to form groups on platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, and others. New online communities emerged as people missed everyday interactions and sought to form connections within the confines of their homes.

Simultaneously, online conflict and the spread of misinformation and disinformation have become more pervasive in recent years. Moderators and administrators of online communities were given responsibilities and challenges without being provided with the skill sets and resources needed to manage them. All these challenges put digital community stewards and the members of their groups in positions of vulnerability.

Search for Common Ground developed a training curriculum for digital community stewards on building social cohesion in online communities in 2022, with the support of Meta, to address these issues and provide support to these emerging digital leaders.

We define “digital community stewards” as individuals who review user-generated content to ensure members adhere to the rules, regulations, and community standards of social media platforms. They act, in a sense, as first-line responders who build safe digital experiences within social media groups. This includes admins and moderators of both public and private groups on various social media platforms (i.e., Facebook, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Instagram, Twitch, Discord, and Clubhouse).

This training curriculum aims to enhance the skills and perspectives of existing digital community stewards to foster social cohesion within their digital communities. With these objectives in mind, 10 core modules were created based on common dilemmas faced by digital community stewards around the world:

1. I don’t understand what it means to be a digital community steward.
2. My group members are not active and engaged.
3. There is no real trust or connection in the way my group members interact with each other.
4. My group members are promoting misinformation and disinformation.
5. I want to flag certain content to the platform I’m moderating my group on and be safe doing it.
6. My group members are insulting each other, encouraging hate speech, and bullying.
7. I want to keep myself and my members safe.
8. I don’t have the leadership skills and confidence to facilitate my group.
9. I want to expand the numbers and diversity of my group.
10. I want to respect freedom of expression, but the type of hate I’m seeing in my group seems to surpass the limit of acceptability.

• Learn More About the Digital Community Stewards Guide
• View the full landing page