Asymmetric Content Moderation in Search Markets: The Case of Adult Websites (papers.ssrn.com)

Posted by dd3 | votes: 130 | comments: 1 | Apr 25, 2025

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  • droidtask | votes: 0 | Apr 25, 2025

    Using a difference-in-differences approach and leveraging on daily website-country level traffic data, we find that this policy resulted in a 41% drop in traffic within one month, suggesting strong user preferences for the removed content. However, much of the displaced traffic was absorbed by competing platforms, including both mainstream rivals and less regulated fringe websites. Over six months, fringe sites experienced a 55% increase in visits, far outpacing the 10% growth of mainstream competitors. Search engines played a critical role in this reallocation: fringe platforms saw a surge in traffic from search referrals and aggregators, as users actively sought alternative content sources.

    Removed content preference ? How does that make sense ? I thought most of the content was same or similar posted again with different cuts.