A 2025 global survey conducted by the University of Oxford and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) shows that the majority of people worldwide support moderation of content on social media, especially when it comes to violence, threats and defamation. Automated text, image and video moderation is a powerful method for protecting users from harmful and illegal content. Its safety advantages are visible and numerous, but its business benefits are still to be fully explored.  

In fact, smart video moderation can bring much more for digital businesses in terms of nurturing user trust and, down the line, increasing revenue. 

Rather than being simply a necessary safety net, content moderation has immense potential for boosting trust in video platforms — and with misinformation and deepfakes on the rise, trust is precious in our digital age. Effective video moderation doesn’t just keep bad content away — it helps create more engaging and trusted online environments. 

In the sections below, we explore the importance and challenges to building trust on digital platforms, examples how video moderation nurtures trust, and practical proof of how smart video moderation boosts platform trust.  

Why Trust Is the New Growth Engine for Digital Platforms

Why video platforms need video moderation

Trust has immense importance for the success of any digital platform. It has a major impact on people’s perceptions and their behavior, which makes it a significant factor in the overall approval of a platform. 

In particular, trust is critical for keeping users on a platform, whether it’s social media, e-commerce website, or a dating platform. People are much more likely to stick with a platform if they trust it, which is the cornerstone for user retention. It means they feel safe using it, and that’s the basis to keep engaging with it.

Trust is a crucial factor for advertiser confidence too. Brands are more likely to advertise on platforms that offer a safe and user-friendly digital environment. Investing in building trust is thus related to the ability to attract high-quality advertisers and increase ad revenues.

Last but not least, trust is essential for creating a sense of credibility. When people feel that a platform is a trustworthy source of information and a safe space for entertainment, they view it as credible. This perception can be created only through consistent and adequate content moderation and maintenance of quality and safety standards. By building credibility, platforms can uphold and enhance their reputation — and attract and retain users. 

Challenges in Building and Keeping Video Platform Trust

Trust is of central importance for video platforms because users are particularly sensitive to harmful content in videos. Visual content is more immediate, so people quickly notice if something has been missed in the moderation process. 

Inappropriate content, misinformation and spam harm the quality of the user experience and the reputation of the digital brand. They have significant negative effects on the overall trust in a platform. 

Inappropriate content is a leading reason for damaging user trust and making people quit a platform. This content can be anything from explicit material, violence, hate speech, defamation, and more. It negatively affects the user experience and down the road, leads to brand reputation damage and dropout. 

Another major challenge to platform trust is misinformation which travels at the speed of light these days. False or misleading information can start affecting people’s opinions and actions quite quickly. This can soon lead to the discreditation of a platform, especially if the cases repeat. 

Spam is yet another obstacle to building and keeping people’s trust. Unwanted ads and repeating messages lead to clutter and worsen the user experience. Their continuous presence inevitably leads to user disengagement and dropout. 

3 Examples How Smart Video Moderation Builds Trust 

Boosting trust in a video platform is a long and rigorous process, but automated video moderation offers powerful tools for achieving it. With its help, video platforms can improve user safety and content appropriateness, increase user satisfaction, and nurture a positive digital environment. 

Faster Response Times

Slow removal of inappropriate or harmful content can result in viral harm. That’s why delayed moderation is not an option in the process of creating trust. 

The key to success is acting before the damage is done, which requires real-time or near-real-time flagging of bad content. AI-powered moderation platforms like Imagga are able to offer the speed and accuracy required to prevent the spread of unwanted content. 

Transparent Feedback for Contributors 

Having your content removed without good reasoning can be frustrating and can lead to disengagement. Content creators have a higher sense of trust in digital platforms when they are informed and understand why their content has been flagged or removed. 

The same goes for transparent and fair appeal processes in cases when creators feel the content removal has been inadequate or unfair. 

Content Appropriateness for All 

People trust platforms when they consistently deliver a safe, fair and positive user experience by filtering out all inappropriate content. AI-powered video moderation guarantees that any visual content that reaches users has been screened and meets the community guidelines, as well as Trust and Safety programs and regulations. 

Effective moderation is of utmost importance for vulnerable user groups, such as children, who need to be protected from harmful experiences at all times. This directly contributes to the inclusivity and fairness of a platform. 

The Shift in Trust-Building Moderation: From Blocking to Curating 

Blocking harmful content is the basic function of content moderation. But its role is ever evolving — and is now spanning also active curation of positive and engaging digital environments. This shift reflects a bigger trend in digital platform management which highlights the importance of building positive user experience. 

The traditional view on moderation is that it is focused on finding and removing harmful or inappropriate content. This is a reactive role whose goal is only protective. 

The new emerging view on moderation is more advanced: it not only serves as a safety mechanism, but helps shape relevant and pleasant user experiences. 

In this paradigm shift, content moderation has a proactive role of promoting engaging and relevant content. This is clearly seen in early livestream flagging, for example, as the issue is handled in real-time. It has a double positive effect: users are not exposed to inappropriate content, and digital creators are encouraged to stick to platform standards on the spot. 

What is Video Moderation

Video moderation is the use of technology or human review to identify and manage content in videos that may be harmful, explicit, or violate platform rules. It helps ensure that videos shared on websites, apps, and social platforms are safe, appropriate, and aligned with community standards. This process can include detecting nudity, violence, hate symbols, or misleading information. AI models are often used to scan video files — scene by scene or frame by frame — making it possible to moderate large amounts of content quickly and consistently.

So what does smart moderation in action look like?

Offers Scalability

Smart video moderation tools are able to efficiently process large volumes of visual content — both videos and live streams. This means that platforms can rely on adequate and consistent moderation even when there is increased user activity or special events. This predictability is essential for building trust. 

Boasts Context Awareness

Advanced AI and machine learning technology provides moderation tools with the ability to grasp not only the facts about content, but also its context. Going beyond simple keyword flagging, moderation platforms keep learning how to differentiate nuances of cultural content, intent, and language. Context-aware moderation can thus make a difference between harmful content and a legitimate discussion about the topic, for example.

Provides Configurable and Flexible Solutions 

Moderation tools offer different options for configuration, so that platforms can modify the parameters to match their community guidelines. In particular, they can set thresholds, rules, and paths for action that are in line with the particularities of the platform and its users. 

Discover Trust-Building Moderation for Your Platform

At Imagga, we have developed and perfected our Adult Content Detection model  to help digital businesses from different industries in handling adult visual content on their platforms. 

Ready to explore trust-building moderation for your platform? Get in touch with our experts.