Social media platforms offer flagging, a technical feature that empowers users to report inappropriate posts or bad actors to reduce online harm. The deceptively simple flagging interfaces on nearly all major social media platforms disguise complex underlying interactions among users, algorithms, and moderators. Through interviewing 25 social media users with prior flagging experience, most of whom belong to marginalized groups, we examine end-users' understanding of flagging procedures, explore the factors that motivate them to flag, and surface their cognitive and privacy concerns. We found that a lack of procedural transparency in flagging mechanisms creates gaps in users' mental models, yet they strongly believe that platforms must provide flagging options. Our findings highlight how flags raise critical questions about distributing labor and responsibility between platforms and users for addressing online harm. We recommend innovations in the flagging design space that enhance user comprehension, ensure privacy, and reduce cognitive burdens.

翻译：社交媒体平台普遍提供标记功能，这一技术特性使用户能够举报不当内容或不良行为者，以减少网络伤害。几乎所有主流社交媒体平台上看似简单的标记界面，实则掩盖了用户、算法与内容审核员之间复杂的底层互动。通过对25名具有标记经验的社交媒体用户（其中多数属于边缘群体）进行访谈，我们考察了终端用户对标记流程的理解，探究了驱动他们进行标记的因素，并揭示了其认知层面的顾虑与隐私担忧。研究发现，标记机制中程序透明度的缺失导致用户心智模型存在认知缺口，但他们仍坚信平台必须提供标记选项。我们的研究结果凸显了标记功能如何引发关于平台与用户之间在应对网络伤害时劳动分配与责任归属的核心问题。我们建议在标记设计领域进行创新，以提升用户理解度、保障隐私并减轻认知负担。