📖 Content moderation glossary
Hide or delete a comment: what is the difference?
In short
Hiding a comment makes it invisible to the public while keeping it (and on Facebook, still visible to its author and their friends); deleting removes it permanently. Hiding is reversible, deleting is not.
Most platforms offer both actions. On Facebook, a hidden comment stays visible to the person who wrote it and their friends, so the author does not feel censored and is less likely to escalate. On Instagram, hiding is also available, as are filters that hide offensive comments automatically. Deletion removes the comment for everyone.
Example: under a brand's post, a comment with an insult is hidden: the thread stays clean and the decision can be reversed if it was a mistake. A comment containing someone's phone number is deleted, because keeping it, even hidden, makes no sense.
Hiding is the safer default for automated moderation, because errors can be undone. Deletion suits content that must not be kept at all, or that the organisation is required to remove. OpenModeration hides clear violations automatically, which keeps decisions reversible, and records a reason for each in the activity log.