This study examines how social media platforms shape public narratives following mass shootings through the interaction of platform governance and user discourse. Comparing moderation policies across major platforms and analyzing conversations around five mass shooting events on X, the authors find that platform governance influences the visibility, tone, and persistence of discussions as users share news, express grief, and debate gun violence and media coverage.
Platform governance shapes public discourse. Differences in moderation policies and enforcement appear to influence the visibility, tone, and longevity of conversations following mass shootings.
Social media serves multiple public functions during crises. Users shared breaking news, expressed grief, debated gun violence and media coverage, and collectively interpreted unfolding events.
AI-assisted thematic analysis can help study large-scale online conversations. A retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) approach, combined with human-guided analysis, enabled researchers to examine tens of thousands of posts while preserving qualitative insight.
Chen, H., Wang, Y., Fallik, S., McNealy, J., Nan, Y., Yang, Q., & Perpich, E. (2026). Mass shooting narratives on social media: Content moderation and participatory discourse. New Media & Society, 0(0).
