Preserving diverse voices on social media

As a digital outlet, social media has transformed individual voices from a proverbial whisper to a megaphone for various ideas allowing traditionally marginalized voices to be heard. These collective voices provide both positive and negative effects to the larger community as they yield their integrative power to influence attitudes and behaviors. Some social media platforms have assumed the responsibility of protecting users from potential threats and applied policies for reporting inappropriate content or for restricting comments. Our research seeks to explore if implementing communication restrictions on social media will decrease hateful and divisive speech on Twitter or if the change will disrupt the essence of Twitter and dilute the diversity of voices. Furthermore, our research can provide preliminary insights on how or whether communication restrictions can decrease hateful and divisive speech on social media.