Why did you delete my comment? Investigating observing consumers' reactions to comment-deletion-clues during a brand crisis

Many users criticize brands by posting negative comments on their social media pages when a brand crisis occurs. Brands often choose to delete negative comments when coping with brand crises. While deleting comments often goes unnoticed, complaints about comment deletion from users whose comments are deleted (e.g., "Why did you delete my comment?") serve as clues for observers after a crisis. Drawing from Warranting Theory, this study examines comment-deletion-clues' impact on observers' forgiveness and negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) transmission and how two types of brand explanations (custom vs. general) alter this impact. Four studies show that the comment-deletion-clues reduce observers' intention to forgive the brand and increase the spread of NWOM. Furthermore, the results indicate that brands' custom explanations mitigate the adverse effects of comment-deletion-clues. This article is among the first to explore the role of content moderation during brand crises and extends the brand crisis literature and the emerging content moderation literature.