Voices Unveiled: Exploring Americans' Perspectives on Social Media Censorship and Advocacy for Reform Through a Qualitative Lens

This qualitative study explored social media users’ perceived experience of censorship on social media communication platforms to better understand the effects of censorship on users. The study relied on a qualitative questionnaire with open-ended questions to collect initial data from 115 participants in the United States. Of the questionnaire respondents, 12 participated in an in-depth interview. The questionnaires and interview answers gathered information about users’ perceived experiences of censorship on social media platforms to determine whether there is a need for changes in current social media practices and policies. The study found that Black males between the ages of 25 and 34 years believe that they are unjustly targeted by social media platforms with censorship and advocate for reform. The phenomenological and sociocultural communication traditions and the muted group and spiral of silence theories were used to evaluate the information gathered and answer the research questions.