Without clear indicators of intent, parodies of extremism will be mistaken for sincere beliefs.
Poe's 2005 formulation from a creationism forum. The consequence for moderation is that intent cannot be inferred from text alone, so sincerity and parody are operationally indistinguishable at scale.
In practice
- A satirical account of a fringe position is quoted approvingly by its adherents.
- A moderation team cannot distinguish sincere extremism from parody at scale, which is why intent-based rules fail and behaviour-based ones do not.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Communication & Media
- Essay
- The folk laws of argument and attention