Opinion: We know social media can incite violence. Moderation can help, it it's done right

Social media companies allowed Trump to threaten and incite violence for years, often with lies. — Reuters

When Facebook tried to get its external Oversight Board to decide whether it should ban Donald Trump permanently, the board demurred and tossed the hot potato back to Facebook, ordering the company to make the final call within six months. But one person had unwittingly offered a vital lesson in content moderation that Facebook and other tech companies have so far missed — Trump himself.

It's this: To predict the impact of inflammatory content, and make good decisions about when to intervene, consider how people respond to it.