Civil or Uncivil: Seeing the Role of User Actors and Providing Comments on Social Media

Social network sites have become a medium for everyone to share things freely and can provide comments for other SNS users. With easy access and support freedom to express opinions, discussion topics become different, including controversial cases. Controversial cases often attract many people into the discussion, and the use of uncivil comments often occurs. This paper investigated the growth of users in online discourse, especially in controversial topics. The goal is to compare the growth of each user type over various periods. Furthermore, we may determine whether perpetrators utilized uncivil language in their discussion more frequently than other user types over time. Our findings are that in controversial cases, actors who act as perpetrators and perpetrators' supporters are more dominant, and uncivil comments are also given by each user type. Furthermore, the overall sentiment of the discussion tends to be negative and shows incivility characteristics. Other user types that support the victim or neutral have little effect in making the discussion more civil. These findings suggest the need for proactive moderation policy strategies on social media to address increased incivility, such as warning users of uncivil language, implementing clear policies, and temporarily hiding comments during periods of increased toxicity.