WhatsApp groups have become a hotbed for the propagation of harmful content including misinformation, hate speech, polarizing content, and rumors, especially in Global South countries. Given the platform's end-to-end encryption, moderation responsibilities lie on group admins and members, who rarely contest such content. Another approach is fact-checking, which is unscalable, and can only contest factual content (e.g., misinformation) but not subjective content (e.g., hate speech). Drawing on recent literature, we explore deliberation -- open and inclusive discussion -- as an alternative. We investigate the role of a conversational agent in facilitating deliberation on harmful content in WhatsApp groups. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 21 Indian WhatsApp users, employing a design probe to showcase an example agent. Participants expressed the need for anonymity and recommended AI assistance to reduce the effort required in deliberation. They appreciated the agent's neutrality but pointed out the futility of deliberation in echo chamber groups. Our findings highlight design tensions for such an agent, including privacy versus group dynamics and freedom of speech in private spaces. We discuss the efficacy of deliberation using deliberative theory as a lens, compare deliberation with moderation and fact-checking, and provide design recommendations for future such systems. Ultimately, this work advances CSCW by offering insights into designing deliberative systems for combating harmful content in private group chats on social media.

翻译：WhatsApp群组已成为有害内容传播的温床，包括错误信息、仇恨言论、极化内容和谣言，在南方国家尤其如此。鉴于该平台的端到端加密特性，审核责任落在群组管理员和成员身上，而他们很少对此类内容提出质疑。另一种方法是事实核查，但这种方法难以扩展，且只能针对事实性内容（如错误信息），无法处理主观性内容（如仇恨言论）。借鉴近期文献，我们探索将审议——开放且包容的讨论——作为一种替代方案。我们研究了对话代理在促进WhatsApp群组中有害内容审议中的作用。通过对21名印度WhatsApp用户进行半结构化访谈，并采用设计探针展示示例代理，参与者表达了对匿名性的需求，并建议借助人工智能辅助以降低审议所需精力。他们赞赏代理的中立性，但指出在回音室群组中进行审议是徒劳的。我们的研究结果凸显了此类代理的设计矛盾，包括隐私与群组动态的权衡，以及私人空间中的言论自由问题。我们以审议理论为视角探讨审议的有效性，比较审议与审核及事实核查的差异，并为未来此类系统提供设计建议。最终，本研究通过为设计用于对抗社交媒体私人群聊中有害内容的审议系统提供见解，推动了计算机支持协同工作领域的发展。