Important links

• Paper (preprint)

Abstract

Many social media platforms allow content creators to pin user comments to their posts. Once pinned, a comment remains fixed at the top of the comments section, regardless of subsequent activity or the selected sorting order. The “Pin of Shame” refers to an innovative re-purposing of this feature, where creators intentionally pin norm-violating comments to spotlight them and prompt shaming responses from their audiences. This study explores how creators adopt this emerging moderation tactic, examining their motivations, its outcomes, and how it compares—procedurally and in effect—to other content moderation strategies. Interviewing 20 content creators who had pinned negative comments on their posts, we find that the Pin of Shame is used to punish and educate inappropriate commenters, elicit emotional accountability, provoke audience negotiation of community norms, and support creators’ impression management goals. Our findings shed light on the benefits, precarities, and risks of using public shaming as a justice practice in platform governance. We contribute to HCI research by informing the design of user-centered tools for addressing content-based harm.

BibTeX citation

@article{shim-2026-pin-of-shame,
    author = {Shim, Yunhee and Jhaver, Shagun},
    journal = {Accepted in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (PACMHCI), Supporting Group Work track (GROUP)},
    title = {Incorporating Procedural Fairness in Flag Submissions on Social Media Platforms},
    year = {2026}, 
    publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, 
    address = {New York, NY, USA}, 
    numpages = {29},
}