Online comment moderation: emerging best practices A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

www.wan-ifra.org Online comment moderation: emerging best practices by Emma Goodman

RESEARCHERS: SUPPORTED BY: Federica Cherubini, Alexandra Waldhorn Media Program of the Open Society Foundations EDITORS: www.opensocietyfoundations.org Alexandra Waldhorn, Amy Had!eld

PUBLISHED BY: WAN-IFRA Washingtonplatz 1 64287 Darmstadt, Germany Tel. +49 6151 7336 / Fax +49 6151 733800 www.wan-ifra.org

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DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS: Dean Roper Published by: the World Association of Newspapers (WAN-IFRA) WORLD EDITORS FORUM DIRECTOR: Cherilyn Ireton © 2013 World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers Table of contents

Introduction ...... 5 The status of comments ...... 17 The moderation process ...... 21 Issues and challenges ...... 51 Best practices ...... 61 What’s next? ...... 65 Conclusion ...... 71 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Image © sxc.hu | Miguel Ugalde

4 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Introduction

In many parts of the globe, online com- consequence-free behaviour and a chance ments have become an essential ingredient to defy social norms, or maybe it’s a factor of a thriving news publication: readers feel of the structure of online conversations, that they have a right to make their contri- but comment threads on websites can fre- bution in an online environment that is be- quently shock due to abusive, uninformed, coming increasingly more dialogue-based not to mention badly-written contributions. than one-way broadcasting. The ability to How to moderate these comment comment on news articles or in discussion threads is a signi!cant challenge for news forums offers readers the chance to indulge organisations as they seek to strike a bal- in debate on hot topics hosted by their fa- ance between providing a place for free vourite news organisations with other read- expression and robust debate while ensur- ers from all over the world. ing a civil and constructive dialogue, and For news organisations, online com- ideally !nding value from reader input. ments can be an extremely valuable re- As Mathew Ingram, senior writer with Gi- source. They provide additional detail and gaOm, said in a recent article1, “Comments insight to articles from informed readers from readers are probably one of the who are passionate about the subject, offer thorniest problems for online publishers a wide range of supplementary opinions of all kinds… and the methods for dealing and give newsrooms a window into how with them are all over the map.” their readers see both their journalism and The issue is further complicated by the the world around them. Their feedback and fact that news organisations are seeing perspectives can also broaden the publica- input from their readers not just on their tion’s coverage from their vantage point, own sites but on social network pages also. inspire new stories and provide possible The social networks themselves are being sources or ways to address an issue. forced time and time again to rethink their But it’s not all a happy tale of consider- own policies for dealing with problematic ate readers offering wisdom and useful user content and question whether they information during a democratic debate are publishers or platforms. on the top issues of the day. It is impos- We spoke to online editors and commu- sible to limit commenting to those who do nity managers at 104 news organisations have something constructive to say and from 63 countries across the globe, plus a discussions frequently descend into tor- selection of experts from the corporate and rents of insults that are utterly irrelevant academic worlds to identify key trends, op- to the original article. Maybe it’s the fact portunities and best practices. that anonymity and distance often allow

1 Making readers a part of the story – the New York Times experiments with highlighting comments, GigaOm, 30 July 2013 http://gigaom.com/2013/07/30/making-readers-a-part-of-the-story-the-new- york-times-experiments-with-highlighting-comments/

5 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Overview of !ndings

The news organisations that we spoke comment moderation, without any imme- to could be broadly divided into two camps diate and obvious !nancial bene!t, is not with regards to their attitudes to online always a priority. comments: there are those who embrace However, there are many organisations comments from users, often as part of a which see them as an essential element in wider strategy of involving their readers in fostering a real community around their their publication, and there are those who publication or a niche topic. Comments are see them as essentially, a necessary evil. believed to increase reader engagement, Very few organisations (seven) didn’t both in terms of time spent on site, and in allow comments at all, but in times of !- terms of loyalty. nancial dif!culties, a costly initiative such as

6 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Summary of key points: t
There was a relatively even split between those that moderate pre- and post-publication: 38 and 42 respectively, with 16 adopting a mixed approach t
Organisations are deleting an average of 11% of comments, primarily because the con- tent is generally offensive, containing hate speech or bad language, or because it’s spam. The subjects that attract the most comments (according to the editors) are (predictably) politics, followed by societal issues, religion, sports and opinion. t
There was general consensus that by moderating comments,publications were not limit- ing their readers’ freedom of speech. Most editors believe that there are an in!nite num- ber of places online for the public to express their points of view, it doesn’t have to be on a speci!c news site, so it is up to the publication to determine the kind of conversation it wants to host. t
There was a notable lack of awareness about the precise legal situation surrounding on- line commenting: who is responsible for what is being said where, what exactly is illegal, and the best way to deal with this. “It’s a grey area,” was a comment made on several occasions in interviews across a range of countries. t
Real name registration vs. allowing anonymity is a divisive issue, with no consensus of which was preferable. There is a general feeling that requiring real names leads to a bet- ter quality of conversation, though smaller in terms of numbers. However, many organi- sations believe it is important to offer anonymity as an option to those who might not be able to speak freely under their real names. t
Although many agree that when journalists participate, the discussion is of a higher quality, few organisations see their journalists frequently entering into conversation with readers. Some don’t believe it’s appropriate for journalists to be involved in an area which belongs to the readers. t
The majority of publications don’t moderate their Facebook pages and other social net- works as heavily as their own sites, because the networks are not their territory and be- cause the real identity policies are seen to make the discussion less controversial. t
Some news organisations are highlighting the ‘best’ comments or most active comment- ers in some way, although many have some way to go in this area in terms of how useful they actually make these functions to readers.

7 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

The importance of moderation

Moderation of comments, meaning, at If you have comments up that show unethi- its most basic level, deleting or blocking cal journalism it damages the brand much those deemed offensive or unsuitable, is “ more. It balances out hiring good, trained widely considered to be essential. A key people with editor level skills so they are motivation of active moderation we noted equipped to make decisions. If it violates was the perceived need to protect the news ethics, it damages the brand even if you organisation’s brand by ensuring a high have a disclaimer. The average reader is quality of discussion. Vitriolic hate speech, going to presume that the comment is there abusive attacks directed at commenters or because you as a newspaper allowed it to even just irrelevant, off-topic remarks are be. So that intangible damage is far more seen as potentially very damaging, as the costly because to build up credibility takes following quotes explain: much longer.” ! Gulf News, UAE The comments are associated with your brand. It’s absolutely up to you as a news- “ room to control what sort of comments you What’s more, as a study1 from the Uni- want to have. Sitting back and saying ‘those versity of Wisconsin-Madison showed in comments are stupid but what can we do early 2013, uncivil comments can affect a about it’ is definitely not the way to go, I reader’s news perception (in this speci!c would say” case the risk factor of a new technology ! Die Zeit, Germany such as nanotechnology). This suggests that comments can in fact impact the way that If we got to a point where a lot of com- a news outlet’s journalism is interpreted by ments that were not suitable were being readers, making it all the more important “ published it would be potentially damaging to monitor them. to the news website: if you’ve got a prop- Moderation also often involves protect- erly branded BBC news article and then all ing readers from abuse and creating an en- these weird and wonderful comments at vironment in which they feel comfortable the bottom that shouldn’t be there, then it’s expressing themselves. potentially damaging to our journalism.” Jerémie Mani, CEO of French modera- ! BBC, UK tion agency Netino, believes “for real free-

1 The “Nasty Effect:” Online Incivility and Risk Perceptions of Emerging Technologies, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcc4.12009/abstract

8 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

dom of speech, moderation is necessary”, It’s about the image and the brand you’re citing Godwin’s Law, which predicts that trying to portray. I’m for absolute freedom the longer an online discussion continues, “ but it gets out of control. You can get a the more likely the conversation will degen- comment section that is unusable if you erate into irrelevant insults involving com- have things that are bad language and just parisons to Hitler and the Nazis. He added spam. These things can hurt.” that if you don’t protect minority opinions, ! Al-Akhbar English, Lebanon they can be overwhelmed by insults from Some news outlets deliberately resist the majority and feel forced to leave the moderating, and regret the need to get conversation. involved. I think it’s the obligation of the news organi- Because we have a company policy based sation to create an environment where the on a light touch, we tend to leave the con- type of reader that they have feels comfort- “ versation to the readers.” able having a conversation and discussion. “ ! The Straits Times, Singapore We want to have conversations with our readers. Our moderation system is in no We should be able give the space to readers way meant to silence them, it’s meant to to discuss. Some people inside the company create a safe environment where people can think we should leave the discussion to the have intelligent conversation and can feel “ readers and not moderate at all, but then comfortable voicing strong opinions. I think the quality gets worse.” moderation is important for everyone but ! The Nation, Kenya you need to have that balance – you can’t just have a free-for-all.” ! Gawker, US

9 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

The bene!ts of commenting

Editors from many types of publications There is no better way to get a feeling about across the world expressed noteworthy what people think about you without invit- enthusiasm and passion for maintaining “ ing them into your environment. Readers robust comment threads. Several view have to feel they can contribute to the pub- comments as an integral part of their pub- lic conversation.” lication and see reader contributions and ! Reuters, UK dialogue becoming ever more important in the future. Without comments we would be a product One of the main bene!ts that editors failure. I wouldn’t live without comments: I perceived from comments was that conver- “ want to hear what they are saying... Com- sation and exchanges with readers helps ments make you think more. I cannot live news publications to stay relevant. without them.” ! The Irrawady, Myanmar It’s really what online is about. There is a generational gap from the paper. The paper Readers aren’t journalists, but they can “ talks to readers, while online is so much also help !ll in the gaps in a newsroom. more: it talks with readers. We allow the They can provide an extra pair of eyes to conversation happen. That is essentially bolster fact-checking or can contribute new what sets us apart from the printed press - information and viewpoints. Some journal- we have that to and fro of dialogue. It’s one ists even get story ideas from reading com- of the pillars of online journalism.” ments. ! Mail & Guardian, South Africa For every article there is at least one reader who will ask the right questions and find It’s vital to keeping a newsroom relevant. If something that the article doesn’t answer you don’t have that your newsroom cannot “ but it should. Journalists are more on their be relevant. You have to know what your “ toes when there are comments. I would say readers are thinking and what affects them. it’s good thing, even if not every journalist If you don’t have that information how can likes it… You just get a better sense of what you be an effective newspaper?” your readers are thinking about current ! Gulf News, UAE topics. Imagine a world without any com- ments – we wouldn’t know what was going I think it adds a whole other dimension to on out there.” the news and to how people engage and ! Die Zeit, Germany “ participate. We have about half a million Facebook fans. It’s amazing how involved people are with the process of news.” ! Animal Politico, Mexico

10 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

People will point out a factual error and For us it does really drive engagement. If we’ll fix it. It happens quite often. Com- you are thinking about how we differenti- “ menting in a way is a form of journalism. “ ate ourselves from other newspapers and There are so many people who will give us websites, a healthy comments section under so much information where there is no cor- each article is a really big plus for us. If you respondent.” are thinking about how you get people to ! The Times of India, India subscribe, I think comments are a very big part of that. Having a space that people They’re our number one fact checkers. go to read, get involved if you want, is very Someone, somewhere else, might have important. Comments get people back to the “ something extraordinarily insightful to add site – they get an email notification if they and they’re all over the world – it’s really have had a reply or a recommend – and good to have that feedback.” there’s a feeling that it adds value to your ! BuzzFeed, US subscription, more than if you bought the newspaper from the newsstand, for exam- Each journalist reads the comments on his ple.” or her stories and replies. I read them all. ! The Times of London, UK “ And we use them to evaluate our stories, to think of new angles, to correct spelling The fact that we provided an open space for mistakes, to think of new stories. Comments comment and still are very tolerant of dif- at La Silla Vacia are famous for being re- “ ferent opinions has brought in a number of ally smart, so we take them seriously most people to have a conversation… People who of the time. In general, I think users in the come to the site and talk about it promote comments section act as the contemporary us as the place to go for conversation. It has editors.” boosted the brand of the paper.” ! La Silla Vacia, Colombia ! The Star, Kenya

There are also ways in which reader We’re keeping people on the page longer. comments can contribute to a better busi- Commercially you have eyes lower on the ness, by keeping on the site for longer, and page, we know more about our users. We increasing their loyalty. For example, peo- “ cannot track users across domains but, ple who comment on an article will often with a little code work, we can start to see revisit the page to see how the comment what people are reading. They do read com- thread has evolved. ments, which is great for page views. Our It increases engagement and time spent mobile users take comments really seri- on our website. It adds value and provides ously too.” “ different points of view. Focus groups have ! News24, South Africa told us that our site is viewed as a place to go for quality debate on the issues of the day.” ! The New Zealand Herald, New Zealand

11 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Key challenges that news organisations are facing

As well as a great deal of enthusiasm This is exacerbated by the fact that the about the value of online comments, we number of comments on news sites is in- found waves of negativity, despondency, creasing fast, particularly in countries that frustration and an overall lack of clarity are seeing massive growth in the use of about how to proceed. digital media.

In the early days there were romantic tales I was one of those who started the com- about being this huge democratic experi- menting but now I’m very disillusioned. It’s “ ence where everyone could do whatever “ so difficult to create a constructive conver- they wanted. I don’t think that’s really what sation. The quality was better when we had happened. We have to do something about fewer comments. Now its mainly just people this debate - it’s not working democratical- shouting at each other” ly. I also think people don’t join in because ! Kathimerini, Greece of the temperature. Interaction is very im- portant in making commenting work.” ! Bergens Tidende, Norway

Image problems as a result of offensive comments

All publications receive offensive com- The impact of hateful, aggressive com- ments. As we explore in further detail later, ments on the publication’s image can be news outlets delete or block an average considerable: of 11% of comments left on their sites, be- The biggest complaint that we have from cause the content is offensive, irrelevant or readers is that they perceive a lack of active spam. “ moderation to control the trolls, the people We have problems, as all news organisa- who storm into the threads. It’s valid. It’s tions and anyone dealing with UGC do, impossible to have staff moderate every “ with people becoming very focused on the thread all the time. There is a reader expec- person behind the comment rather than the tation. There is a high expectation among argument.” editors and reporters that the commenting ! The Times, UK community be actively moderated and care- fully weeded out the bad stuff. I don’t know The main reason is offensive language, any organization, perhaps except The New sometimes they’re not comments at all. Peo- York Times, that can afford to do that.” “ ple should figure out the difference between ! Seattle Times, US writing whatever and the comment itself. When two political parties collide over any- [Readers] see that it’s the same people all thing it’s not commenting any more… offen- the time commenting against each other sive language, hate speech, you name it.” “ and they get sick and tired of it.” ! Radio Television Serbia, Serbia ! Norran, Sweden

12 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Some people say they are too scared to be vocal, percentage.The content we publish is quoted in an article because they are afraid very wide, not a strong editorial voice, just “ of what the commenters will say.” the latest information. You have the fact ! The Denver Post, US of the internet and South Africa’s history, where people from different communities You speak to most people in South Africa are not used to talking to each other, and and the most negative thing about our you have this trolling behavior. We are the “ brand is our comments. I always remind biggest platform and try and be as open as people that 1% of our audience submit a possible, so these issues do pop up.” comment: it’s actually a small, but very ! News24, South Africa

Dif!culties with stopping offenders

It is not easy to stop those who are deter- We have a problem with those who come to the mined to comment, editors said. Many have website to spread propaganda, especially po- !lters in place to look for swearing and other “ litical. It’s difficult to block them because they key words but these aren’t always effective. became very subtle and never really cross the line, despite trying to be provocative. Usually Some people are very smart. We have pro- it’s extreme right propaganda on racist issues.” fanity filters and they’ll write things that the ! Le Monde, France “ filters will not look at because they change the letters or something. Even an idiot We already know most of our commentators. would understand what he’s saying so we We know who we should block. Sometimes keep looking at them. It’s virtually impos- they make other email accounts and then sible for us to read all of the comments so “ comment again. You can’t stop someone that’s why we depend on readers.” from commenting if they really want to.” ! The Times of India, India ! Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland

Lack of motivation from staff

As we explore later, staff participation I wish that journalists could contribute more in comment threads is likely to signi!cantly but often they don’t have time to do it. Moder- increase the quality of conversation and “ ators do see each post and they give the editor improve the commenter’s experience on a an alert – someone has a really interesting site. But persuading journalists to contrib- question on your article, are you sure that’s ute can be very dif!cult. right, don’t you want to answer? … We are try- ing to get [journalists] into the debate but not As a whole comments are not well regarded. everyone wants to do that. So it’s not assured Majority of the people in newsroom are not that every reader gets feedback even if he’s interested in comments or feel they’re a “ got something quite interesting to say. That’s necessary evil.” not good, we’re working on it but it’s rather ! Dallas Morning News, US hard to get everyone in line on this.” ! Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany

13 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Political propaganda

A more speci!c but signi!cant prob- I mean I can’t say it’s the government, but lem that emerged is political commentary during elections we often see some com- written under false names: several editors “ ments about political parties reported believe that their comments sections are consistently and we can’t really know if it’s being used by disguised politicians and po- from someone from the opposite political litical activists to spread their views. party or if it’s a crazy guy sitting in his room and having fun with it. But it always hap- I know there are certain entities in Serbia pens during elections.” - both political parties and big companies - ! Público, Portugal. “ that are scamming comment sections with a whole army of commenters to alter the The quality of the comments is actually comment section. If we see a large number pretty low. Most of the comments, particu- of comments in short time from the same larly in political stories, are from – we sus- IP address with different nicknames and all “ pect – from people who are trying to push a comments tend to have the same reasoning, partisan agenda. So if we for example have we discuss and sometimes delete all but a story criticizing the local government, we first comment. You don’t need to distort the would get a lot of comments from the mayor public opinion in that way. I don’t think that or the government’s own party defending it is part of free speech. We wouldn’t block and a lot of comments from the opposition that IP address, but block all the comments criticizing it.” but the first one.” ! El Siglo de Torrèon, Mexico ! Blic, Serbia

We never experienced direct government in- We have political activists posting 50 com- terference. What happens these days is that ments from the same IP address. Comments there are a lot of people acting on behalf of are not actually deleted from the database, “ “ somebody, but not really openly.” but from the page so they arenot visible to ! The Nation, Kenya the public anymore.” ! Juzne Vesti, Serbia

How to make the best use of them?

Aside from stemming the "ow of of- removing the problematic comments (usu- fensive abuse, peppered with propaganda, ally about 10-20%). But the challenge he the main challenge for news organisations sees now is what should be done with the today is how to use, most effectively, the remaining 80% that are acceptable, only comments that remain: how to display about 10% of which might be truly valu- them, how to incorporate them in report- able. How can you identify and highlight ing, how to respond to them, and more. those interesting comments to make sure Jerémie Mani, CEO of comment modera- that anybody in the community can pro!t tion service Netino, explained that in the from them, without losing the thread of past, his clients were only concerned with the discussion?

14 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Natalie Jomini Stroud, of the Engaging Your most frequent commenters are your News Project, worries that effective com- best customers. They know more about munity management is lacking at small, “ your site than anybody else. They know local news outlets and that they are missing more about your reporters and how they out on potential conversations with their write. And they’re constantly on your web- audiences. “The major news outlets – the site giving you page views. And yet we do ones with large budgets and more of a very little to acknowledge or commend national reach, have the in-house staff and these people. I think very few sites do - some tools to do these kinds of things. But those give badges for most positive comment- more local outlets don’t, and to me that’s a ers but most don’t do anything and a lot of little bit troublesome. If we don’t have local people wish commenters would go away. conversations happening because the tools But in fact these are the people who live and aren’t there for local outlets to do it – that breathe your site. They call it this ‘my col- makes me nervous.” lege football blog’,’ my photo area’, not The Some news outlets worry that they Seattle Times because they are so ingrained don’t do enough for their loyal comment- in it.” ers, due to a lack of resources. ! The Seattle Times, US

15 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Image © sxc.hu | Jakub Krechowicz

16 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

The status of comments When to accept comments

Over half of the respondents (61 out of Others only allow comments on a small the 97 that allow comments at all) allowed number of articles, or on speci!c verticals comments on all or almost all articles. that they think will be particularly appropri- Some just exclude articles about ongoing ate. Frequently this is because of resource court cases, or about accidents, or violence issues, particularly at publications that mod- against minors, or other topics that they erate pre-publication. Many expressed keen- feel it would be either legally risky or par- ness to ensure that the articles which could ticularly insensitive to allow comments on. generate debate are open for comments, but at the same time fear opening those which Most articles do, but then again you have might cause legal problems or which might some stories that you wouldn’t want anyone be particularly controversial. Opinion articles to comment on. We do an assessment every “ were more likely to see comments opened. time. For example stories about accidents For example, until three years ago, all are things that you wouldn’t want discus- articles at Belgian daily De Standaard were sion on. It doesn’t happen too often. If it’s open to comments. Then feeling that the just controversial that’s good because we commenting was “impossible to control,” get lots of comments and debate. It’s more due to too many comments and the high news that we wouldn’t want feedback on - workload, the paper limited the number of like an accident or people.” comments. Now comments are on fewer ar- ! Fædrelandsennen, Norway ticles – just opinion pieces and a few of the news articles that would provoke debate, We have had to close conversations around but there is more moderation for each one some really interesting news stories just to and the paper perceives that comments are be safe – we had to be very careful last year “ now of a higher quality. with all the coverage of the phone hacking At The New York Times, stories are cho- scandal. So many people were being ar- sen based on the following criteria (in order rested, so cases became active… I think it’s of importance): fair to say that not all of our commenters t
news value of the story, are going to be as well versed in UK libel t
the projected reader interest in the law as your average journalist. So we have story, to be really careful about where we go with t
whether or not the comments will conversations.” be interesting for a casual reader ! The Guardian, UK to the site, i.e. won’t inspire name- calling or petty !ghting, We do turn off comments on certain opinion t
whether or not we can moderate pieces if there is a high probability that the projected number of comments defamatory or legally problematic or racist “ in a timely fashion, comments will be posted” t
whether we have had recent com- ! The New Zealand Herald, New Zealand ments on this issue.

17 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

“If the news value of the story is high At Gulf News, stories are chosen because enough we will allow comments even if it’s they are seen as talking points that will gen- going to be a struggle to moderate,” said erate debate. This includes ‘people’ stories, The New York Times community manager for example. Another consideration is the Bassey Etim. “We want to hit as many audi- stories on which editors are interested in ences as possible with the topics we cover,” getting community feedback and follow-up he added. thoughts on. Where are the comments going? The most

It was generally agreed that articles on The perspective that Groundviews bring to politics attract far and away the most com- issues debated in the country is normally ments, with 53 editors and managers citing “ different. We see a spike in comments these as among those which receive the around items on gender-based violence, gay most comments. rights, transgender rights and HIV. They Next came articles on society issues such generate a lot of comments because you as education or crime (13), followed by won’t find that or that debate around the religion, opinion pieces and sports, which issues in mainstream media. Also items on were all cited 12 times. Local news (11) and the end of the war: content that is fairly dif- gender issues (8 - including gay rights) were ficult to find generally results in debate.” also popular among commenters. ! Groundviews, Sri Lanka Some examples of articles that attract the most comments:

It tends to be articles whose topic has been in the news for a long time as opposed to “ breaking news. For example, an article about conflicting evidence regarding cli- mate change: it has been in the news for about 20 years and yet it got hundreds and hundreds of comments.” ! Reuters, UK

18 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

The best

Among those who felt able to give an Often ones where there’s a personal experi- idea of the type of articles that attract the ence involved. If there’s someone who is highest quality of comments, a wide range “ writing about a rape experience, or some- of topics were cited, but articles on politics body with a family member suffering from also stood out, mentioned 14 times. How- leukemia… We often get very lengthy, frank ever, they were also brought up by several contributions which really add to the arti- respondents as the type of articles that at- cle as opposed to back and forth opinions tract the worst comments. Next best were which a lot of people have but they don’t niche lifestyle areas such as travel, women- add a huge amount to the article itself.” speci!c content, cars, technology, science ! The Times, UK and history, with 12 mentions.

Graph showing subjects that attract the highest quality of comments

Some examples of the articles that at- Stories that are published about common tract the highest quality comments: people and their problems. When we’re trying to solve some kind of problem we get Anything that is technical in nature gets very “ a lot of quality comments because people good comments… about energy efficiency share their views.” etc. Anything that doesn’t have a strong “ ! 24sata, Croatia political or ideological background where people would argue more about technical Quite often the best quality are on niche things.” stories: people who would be motivated ! Die Zeit, Germany “ enough to read the article would be able to leave a good comment. They tend to have a higher threshold of quality.” ! BBC, UK

You get both great comments and terrible comments on the controversial topics. Qual- “ ity eventually follows quantity.” ! El Espectador, Colombia

19 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

20 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

The moderation process When to moderate? Pre- or post-publication?

What kind of moderation system to Post-publication moderation occurs in choose and how to execute it can be mind- two different ways: either all comments are aching for editors – especially as online read by a staff member, or the staff only participation increases and staf!ng often read those that are "agged to their atten- declines. A pre-publication moderation tion by their readers. The latter is preferred system relies on staff members reading and by many as a least labour-intensive method, approving all comments before publication, and in several countries it comes with the whereas in a post-publication moderation lowest level of legal liability. Some publica- system, comments are "agged by read- tions have also designed multilayered com- ers or combed through after a user self- menting systems that combine staff mod- publishes. Whichever route is chosen, it is a eration with help from readers. An overall key decisions for publications to make, with advantage is that the comments appear many factors to consider. There was a fairly quickly and readers can effectively have even split among the organisations we a real time conversation on the site. The spoke to, with 42 opting to moderate after big risk, however, is that offensive content publication, 38 before, and 16 operating could remain on your site for some time a mixed strategy. (This takes only human before somebody spots it. moderation into account; many organisa- The news organisations we spoke to had tions have spam !lters that comments must a variety of reasons for making their choice. pass through before a human sees them.) Pre-publication moderation has a clear advantage as the best way to ensure that offensive or unwanted content does not appear online. However, in some countries this comes with increased legal liability because the publication is aware of all com- ments being posted. Pre-moderation is also the most labour-intensive method, which can be particularly dif!cult to manage for sites with a high volume or growing num- ber of comments. The other disadvantage is that it slows down the conversation be- tween readers as there will inevitably be a delay between when comments are submit- ted and when they are published. This de- lay varies signi!cantly between publications How news organisations depending on their resources. moderate comments

21 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Why pre-moderation?

“We pre-moderate because we felt it duce a comment thread that is most ben- was a more responsible approach,” said e!cial to go alongside the article and which Gulf News, UAE. “The environment com- contributes something in the same way as pels you to make sure there is not offensive a graphic or multimedia – that’s what pre- content because we are in the Middle East. moderation offers you.” We don’t want content that is offensive or “I don’t think it’s a good idea to get in"ammable.” people to post whatever they want and “Pre-moderation de!nitely has its ben- then deal with it later,” said the editor at e!ts,” said The Times, UK. “I agree with the Egypt’s Al-Ahram English. “People keep re- decision in principle – the ability to guide plying to each other if you leave that door a conversation and work with users to pro- open.”

Map showing geographical spread of pre- and post-publication moderation

22 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Why post-moderation?

Die Zeit, Germany, opted for post- An-Nahar in Lebanon said pre-modera- moderation mainly because of the delay tion was too dif!cult to implement and in that comes along with pre-moderation. its place has rotating shifts where people “We found that the conversations are much read the comments every several hours. more lively when people can see their com- Initially, the paper sent a list of banned ments appear immediately. Ninety !ve swear words to the company that built its percent of comments are OK, and I don’t website so that if someone included the want to punish those people just because words in a comment, it would be deleted or 5% can’t behave. I like to trust the user that blacked out immediately. “But people can they can write OK comments.” always create new bad words so there was Fædrelandsvennen in Norway had simi- no process to do this,” said the editor. “We lar reasoning. “If someone tries to partici- are using post-moderation because we can pate on our site and they have to sit and see the bad words, not the negative com- wait, we think a lot of people would lose ments. They can be negative, just not with interest in that process.” bad words.” “The community moderation is a nice The community moderation approach option to solve capacity issues because we isn’t always effective, however, as the Win- can still handle everything that’s reported,” nipeg Free Press, Canada, pointed out: “If said City Press, South Africa. “It’s not be- we have a story where we know we get cause of liability, more because of capac- a lot of bad ones that readers might not ity.” "ag we’ll spend more time. For example, if “We have pretty good tools in place there’s a story about someone convicted of with !lters and other sorts of devices of a crime, and someone comments, ‘I hope encouragement so that we !nd that our that guy gets what he deserves in jail,’ we’d readers can be relied on to behave,” said delete that because it doesn’t agree with the Wall Street Journal, USA. “If we !nd a our terms and conditions, but other readers problem we take pretty quick action. We might not "ag it because they were think- do pro-actively moderate stories especially ing the same thing. In that case, I’ll ask staff high pro!le stories, usually ones that are a to have a quick run through the comments political or cultural "ashpoint story.” if I think readers won’t "ag them... It works pretty well except if everyone agrees - then the system kind of fails.”

23 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

A mixed approach

Some publications (16) operate a mixed The Seattle Times, US, has built a mod- approach to the when they moderate. eration system around both internal and Some do this depending on the subject external channels. Its long-time comment- of the article or the comment: using pre- ers are also in tune insofar as who the trolls moderation if an article is on a particularly are and are quick to notify the editors. “I’ll sensitive topic, but letting comments on get an email or someone else will get an other topics go straight up. email and they have the ability to go in an At La Nación, Argentina, post-publica- remove a bad comment. Second, and more tion moderation on comments reported by common, is that there is a threshold on the other users is standard. But all comments ‘report abuse’ button where you hit a cer- are passed through a keyword !lter and if tain number of public reports on a certain they contain something particularly con- comment. If it hits a high enough number troversial, such as ‘Palestine’ or ‘Cristina it automatically goes away. Also, if there Kirchner’ they will be sent straight to the is just one report, it goes into a queue moderators. with the rest of comments that have been The Star, Kenya, usually moderates post- reported and someone on our staff will publication. But during the 2013 elections, moderate the queue and decide if it is !ne people were absorbed by politics and “all or not.” they wanted was a platform to air out their Others change their approach based opinions,” said the web administrator/jour- on how well they know the user. The New nalist. “This wasn’t going anywhere - hate York Times, US, has 200 “trusted com- speech after hate speech. So we decided to menters” whose comments go straight up, do pre-moderation. Suddenly they couldn’t while others are pre-moderated. At Project see their comments because we had to de- Syndicate, Czech Republic, “a !rst time cide when it would go on the site. It was commenter’s input won’t go online until kind of unfair but it worked during that somebody approves it. From then on, they period.” comment in real time.” MOE!, Russia, allows registered users to comment directly while comments from others are moderated pre-publication. The Denver Post, US, buries comments from lesser-known users until they’ve posted !fteen comments on the site. Juzne Vesti, Serbia, allows users who log in through Facebook or Google to post directly, while those who use a website pro!le are pre- moderated.

24 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Community guidelines

A major concern for many editors is that guidelines to be clearly shown so that peo- a laissez-faire approach to comment sec- ple know what the expectations are as they tions could quickly enable them to become post content on the site,” said Andrew Mc- a hate-!lled, free-for-all beneath the con- Diarmid, senior policy analyst at the Center tent. However, coupled with moderation, for Democracy and Technology. community guidelines can help improve For most editors and managers, the comments from the start and bring out the guidelines are useful not only to advise best in a news outlet’s audience. the readers but also to guide and defend Out of the 97 news organisations we the moderation process. If a reader com- spoke to that accept online comments, 78 plains that one of their comments has been had some kind of guidelines that are made blocked or deleted, the easiest way for the available to their readers online and several news outlet to justify this is by pointing out of those that did not have them, were plan- that it de!ed the community guidelines. ning to implement them in the near future. Most guidelines state that the reader is re- “We think it’s essential for content sponsible for the content that they post. Mail & Guardian’s Comments Guardian’s Guidelines & Mail

25 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities The New Zealand Herald’s Rules for Your Views CommentsBlog and Your for Rules Herald’s TheNewZealand Many of the guidelines are, understandably, about what not to do. There are common themes that dominate, some are:

Don’t post content that is offensive or abusive. Here, most speci!cally refer 1 to racism, homophobia and sexism, as well as mentioning hate speech.

For example:

You may not… Post, link to or otherwise You agree that you will not use threaten- publish any messages containing mate- ing or abusive language, or anything that “ rial that is obscene, racist, homophobic “ discriminates on the basis on race, religion, or sexist or that contains any form of hate age, nationality, gender, sexual preference, speech.” etc. While expressing opinions, do not enter ! The Economist, UK into personal attacks or publish any mate- rial that constitutes hate speech. Baseless, Most importantly, racist, sexist, offensive unproven accusations will not be tolerated.” and abusive comments will not be toler- ! Winnipeg Free Press, Canada “ ated.” ! News24, South Africa Keep it clean and respect others — don’t use language you wouldn’t use with your “ parents.” ! The Denver Post, US

26 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Don’t post content that is illegal: most refer here to defamation, libel, and 2 pornography.

Your comments must not contain, defama- You may not submit any defamatory or tory, obscene, pornographic, or otherwise illegal material of any nature to any of “ illegal material.” “ Monitor Online’s communities/ezines. This ! The New Zealand Herald, New Zealand. includes text, graphics, video, programs or audio. You agree to only submit materials We will remove any content that may put us which are your own original work. You must in legal jeopardy, such as potentially libel- not violate, plagiarise, or infringe the rights “ lous or defamatory postings, or material of third parties including copyright, trade posted in potential breach of copyright.” mark, trade secrets, privacy, publicity, per- ! The Guardian, UK sonal or proprietary rights.” ! Daily Monitor, Uganda

3 Don’t post irrelevant, off-topic content

A comment that is obviously off topic -- that Keep it relevant. We know that some conver- is, unrelated to the article or contribution sations can be wide-ranging, but if you post “ in question and the comments that precede “ something which is unrelated to the original it -- or that clearly doesn’t contribute to the topic (‘off-topic’) then it may be removed, ongoing debate may be deleted by the edito- in order to keep the thread on track. This rial team.” also applies to queries or comments about ! Mail & Guardian, South Africa moderation, which should not be posted as comments.” ! The Guardian, UK

4 Don’t swear.

Some publications ban swearing en- or machine. The web editor at the weekly tirely, such as The Age and its other Fairfax Sloboda LLC in Russia said the publication siblings, whose guidelines also specify no doesn’t have community guidelines but ‘leetspeak,’ referring to an online tendency that swearing was prohibited in mass me- to replace letters with numbers to make a dia, and also in commenting. word less immediately readable by human

27 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Don’t post content that is badly-written, in all caps, abbreviations or mis- 5 spelled to such a degree that it is illegible.

Use the first person format and do not use A Reuters article states that the news abbreviations (e.g. B4U, CUL8R, BRB)” outlet is likely to moderate comments “ ! Groundviews, Sri Lanka that contain “semi-literate spelling; we’re not looking for perfection, but people shouldn’t have to struggle to determine the meaning”

6 Don’t write excessively long comments.

Some limit comment length to 150 You shall not host, display, upload, modify, words, 250 or 350 words, for example. publish, transmit, update or share any Some news publications had more spe- “ information on the site, that … threatens ci!c bans based on speci!c sensibilities in the unity, integrity, defence, security or their respective countries: sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign states, or public order or causes Mon Figaro’s moderation team reserves the incitement to the commission of any cognis- right to delete any comments that cite ex- able offence or prevents investigation of any tracts from religious texts, whether authen- “ offence or is insulting any other nation.” tic or not. Equally, comments that encour- ! The Times of India, India age religious conversion will be rejected.” ! Le Figaro, France Comments that openly support terrorism, sectarianism, secession, and/or are offen- “ sive to religious sensibilities” ! The Express Tribune, Pakistan

28 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Constructive guidance

Not all community guidelines are rules Tribune.com.pk aims to nurture a vibrant about what you can’t do: some offer more online community by giving our readers positive, constructive advice to help readers “ maximum flexibility and freedom in ex- come up with appropriate comments and pressing their thoughts and ideas. Our goal articulate arguments. is to encourage debate and make our site an engaging and informative web space, Please treat others with respect…. Attack the rich with discussion and user-led dialogue issue, not the person… Be reflective, frame about news and issues explored by The issues as best you can… Propose ideas and “ Express Tribune. We believe that our com- alternatives… Groundviews is open to re- munity of readers adds tremendous value flective and thought provoking content that to the site and are appreciative of their in- is: 1 Pithy and provocative, 2 Bears witness volvement.” to the denial of justice, human rights and ! The Express Tribune, Pakistan. gross ceasefire violations 3 Essentially hu- manizes and critiques conflict and peace When you have finished crafting your through alternative cultural, social, eco- comment, read it again before posting it. nomic and political perspectives.” Consider whether others will understand ! Groundviews, Sri Lanka “ your arguments. Something that you meant to be satirical or humorous might not be Contributors should show each other mu- clear to another reader. Also, take into con- tual respect. Vigorous personal criticism sideration that your words will remain on remains acceptable so long as it is justified “ the internet for a very, very long time, if not by facts, arguments or discussion of the key forever.” issue.” ! Mail & Guardian, South Africa ! The Star, Kenya

Keep a cool head. Even if a subject particu- larly excites you, we ask you to keep your “ posts free of generalizations and provoca- tion, of hasty and irrelevant contributions, and specific disruptions to the debate.” ! Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany

29 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Registration: real name or anonymous?

Whether or not to require registration Twenty out of the 91 organisations who to comment on a site and if so, how to do were able to give details about their regis- so is another key question for news organi- tration process made a concerted effort to sations. Most feel that registration helps ensure that their commenters use their real promote constructive conversations. There names, either through requiring of!cial ID was general agreement that requiring reg- numbers, checking up on addresses, or only istration made the number of comments offering login through social media sites such fall, but the quality of those remaining is as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+. much higher. Fewer comments also means A majority, 53 out of 91 news outlets, less moderation, which most perceive as a require registration, involving at the mini- bene!t. mum an email address, but make no partic- In addition, requiring people to com- ular effort to verify real names and/or allow ment under their real name is generally the use of pseudonyms. thought to create a more civil conversa- A further 18 organisations allowed tion and this is a key motivation for people ‘guest’ commenting, without any form of who require or encourage commenters to registration required. register with real names. Although only a Several publications, predominantly couple of news organisations felt that there Latin American (Folha de Sao Paolo - Brazil, was any legal obligation to obtain the real O Globo - Brazil, Zero Hora - Brazil, El Mer- names of commenters, many ask for these curio - Chile, El Espectador - Colombia, Poli- regardless. tiken - Denmark), ask for an of!cial iden- ti!cation number which they use to verify who the commenter is. Several are very happy with their choice of real name communities. Zero Hora, Brazil, switched from a reg- istration-free system to one that requires a full name, email address and ID number: “We used to have a huge number of com- ments but they were very poor – it wasn’t a relevant debate. So we decided to close that and now we have this registration re- quirement for everyone who wants to com- ment. This is also strategic so that we have fewer comments and we can monitor them with more attention.”

What is asked for? The minimum information required is an email address. Most verify this by sending a con!rmation email with a link.

30 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

At iDNES, Czech Republic: “We lost com- their real name. The main thing is that their menters when we switched to real name: ability to comment on the site will be sus- before November we had some 30,000 pended until they have spoken to customer comments a day; after November, 10,000 a service and straighten out their account. A day. We now have 48,000 registered users reader who has been suspended for a fake - that is less than before but are happy that name is pretty much guided on how to cor- we have changed. The comments are much rect the situation.” better now and we don’t have to erase so Many don’t make the effort to truly many.” check names, and adopt a more ‘encourag- “Most of our commenting is construc- ing’ approach. For example, to urge peo- tive. We are a real name community so our ple to use their real names, The Times of readers are not the average web reader India allows readers to accumulate points hiding behind a cloak of anonymity. We through a loyalty/reward programme each have real name standards here and com- time they read, comment or recommend a menting histories and pro!les are visible so story. These points lead to badges and the it’s almost like a social network,” said The user gets their photo posted on the website Wall Street Journal’s community editor. as an incentive to use their name. However, it’s hard to verify whether or Some publications also said that while not people are using a real name unless you they don’t enforce real name registration, ask for an of!cial identi!cation number. many people still disclose it. For example, The Wall Street Journal, which has a Mint in India said that most people don’t close-knit real name community, takes this have an issue with using their real name seriously: “we have help from customer and that normally the people who sign up service in vetting if names are real. We’ll anonymously have their own agenda, may- review all new accounts and be able to fol- be a political one. low up if we know someone did not use

The value of anonymity

Other organisations believe that it’s very remain anonymous. Ninety nine percent of important to allow their users to remain the comments are anonymous, the editor anonymous when commenting so as to al- said. low people to write things that they might The Denver Post encourages real name not be able to express publicly using their registration but doesn’t verify the names. real names. “There is quite a lot of value in “You get more robust discussion if you al- allowing people to have anonymity,” said low pseudonyms,” the social media editor the BBC’s social media editor. said. “I think the key is consistency - so if At The Irrawady in Myanmar, “A lot of you are the same pseudonym all the time. comments are made by people who don’t The problem is when you have people cre- want to reveal their identity for political ating multiple accounts. That is against our or security reasons,” despite the fact that rules. We understand that anonymous com- the country is becoming more open, the menting has its drawbacks but as long as editor said. it’s consistent it’s okay.” At Haaretz in Israel, users are offered Gawker Media Network, US, goes to some the choice to log in through Facebook or to lengths to ensure absolute anonymity for its

31 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

commenters, if they want it. They can either impinging on a much narrower set of us- login through a social network – Facebook, ers’ rights by obliging them to use their Twitter or Google – or they can use the anon- real name, compared to a site like Facebook ymous ‘Burner’ method which involves the that is meant to be a global community and site issuing a 16-character key for a one-time is very central to the way people express only login. Gawker doesn’t store the key, any themselves online. of the user’s information or their IP address. Online commenting software provider As the site’s founder Nick Denton explained Disqus found in a 2012 study that pseu- on the site, “there is no username, email ad- donyms actually helped spur constructive dress or password that could compromise comments for many of the sites that use its your identity. Yes, even if we’re hacked.” services. He explains his site’s determination to allow In the study, they looked at how the anonymity when so many others are moving quality of participation of commenters on away from it: “we’ll accept some disorder, if the sites that use Disqus depended on how that’s the price of freedom in one’s personal people register: registering using their real life, in politics and the press.” name, registering but able to use a pseudo- Some queried the effectiveness of real nym, or no registration (guests.) name policies. Although Tamara Littleton, “To be honest what we were thinking CEO of eModeration believes that anonym- we would !nd is that we would see the ity “leads to quite intense trolling and hate highest quality from the real names and speech,” she added that real name poli- the highest quantity from the guests,” said cies don’t always work, pointing out that Ro Gupta, VP business development at there is some “awful stuff” across the 400+ Disqus. “It turned out that neither of these Facebook pages that her company moder- things were true: the pseudonym group ates. Laura Oliver of The Guardian, UK, also scored better on both counts. They gave questioned the argument that real name the most comments and they received the requirements on social networks actually most positive signals and the least negative improve discussion, and asked, “Have you signals from people using the tool.” seen our Facebook page?” Helen Lewis, writing in The New States- Others posit that anonymity must be man1, quoted Tom Postmes, a researcher valued, as it is part and parcel of one’s right at the University of Groningen, who said: to freedom of speech. Andrew McDiarmid, “It’s too simple, too straightforward, to senior policy analyst at the Center for De- say it turns you into an animal. In all the mocracy and Technology said that in this research online that we know of, anonym- context, the center discourages real name ity has never had that effect of reducing policies. self-awareness.” He suggested to Lewis “The importance of maintaining ano- that it might be more to do with the lack of nymity increases as a platform grows to consequences: after all, what percentage of tremendous size,” McDiamrid said, noting people would steal, or lie, or drop litter, if that a small niche publication would be they knew they would not caught?

1 ‘Who are the trolls?’ – Helen Lewis, the New Statesman http://www.newstatesman.com/helen-lewis/2013/07/who-are-trolls

32 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Who is involved in the moderation process?

There is a signi!cant range of staff- moderation. If in doubt about a comment ing allocations to moderation: from larger the editorial staff will vote on whether to news organisations with dedicated teams keep or delete it. comprising several full time staff who are At Južne Vesti, Serbia, the journalists providing 24/7 moderation, to smaller monitor their own articles two or three newsrooms where checking comments is times a day for the !rst three days. a side or occasional job for web editors or At Zero Hora, Brazil, each section of the other newsroom staff. paper is responsible for monitoring the Approximately one third of publications comments and all the content related to (33) that accept comments had some kind their presence on the Internet. of dedicated moderating team. Thirteen Hurriyet, Turkey, has one full time outsource moderation to external compa- moderator. nies but at more than half the news organi- The Nation, Kenya has a team of four sations we spoke to, comments are mod- moderators who report to the social media erated by journalists or other newsroom editor. staff, often the online team. Many of the Blic, Serbia, has six people doing com- latter cited lack of resources as an explana- ment moderation, reporting to the social tion for no dedicated team. media editor. For example: The Times, UK, has a team of six people At El Espectador, Colombia, nobody is who moderate comments: between one assigned speci!cally to comment modera- and three will be working at any one time. tion but if someone reports a comment The New York Times, US, has a team of then the editorial team receives an email 13 people moderating comments; as some and they will look into it. work part time, this is the equivalent of Lakome, Morocco, has a very small team about nine full time positions. so there is nobody dedicated to comment

Advanced automation

Several organisations use automated also think of it as a good investment rather !lters to block certain comments from be- than a cost,” said the editor ing published. A couple of organisations we And as online identities multiply, quickly spoke to have more advanced approaches. and at times amorphously, technical solutions Der Standard, Austria, uses self-learning will be key to managing them. For example, software, that learned from the manual the executive editor for online news at Blic, moderation of more than 100,000 postings Serbia said that “it’s silly for me to think that plus some blacklisted words. If the software in ten years I’ll have more people administrat- is not sure, it passes the comment on to a ing comments than writing a story, which human being. “It is costly, but the software would be the case if we didn’t come up with really helped us in reducing other costs. We some kind of technical solutions.”

33 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

In addition to having a spam "iter, Blic For 40% of the comments submitted on a has also implemented keyboard shortcuts given article, you can have a 95% certainty to speed up the moderation process. that that comment will be approved or The New York Times, US, is experiment- rejected. “So in cases where the issue isn’t ing with sentiment analysis to complement controversial, we’ll sometimes use that to its human moderation. Based on the rejec- get more comments through at !rst, and tion or approvals of previous comments, we’ll go back to read them later,” said the the tool can determine a likelihood that a editor. comment will be approved, based on the words and sentences somebody is using.

Level of staff participation in the discussion

There was widespread agreement that The rule of thumb is that if the owner is tak- staff participation in the comment sections ing part in the conversation the quality is improves the quality of discussion . Often, “ suddenly so much better.” a staff contribution will be highlighted or ! O Globo, Brazil marked, with a star, for example, so that it is easily distinguishable amongst the chat- We know that having that staff presence ter. early on in threads on our site dramatically increases the tone of the conversation that I think their presence there makes a huge “ follows: it lessens the need for moderation difference because it gives readers a sense as well because it sets a high barrier and that they are being heard and appreciated.” “ gives people direction. It encourages people ! The Wall Street Journal, US who have never commented before to take that leap of faith.” People are much more productive and bet- ! The Guardian, UK ter on the site the more we engage with them: if they are heard, and we care.” “ Yes we encourage all our staff – reporters ! BuzzFeed, US and editors - to participate in discussions because we’ve discovered that participat- The best way to ensure the discussion is “ ing in discussions is probably THE best way fruitful is when we also participate, and we to raise the level of debate. People act very are trying to do it more and more.” “ differently when they see that somebody ! Der Standard, Austria from the newsroom is actually involved in the discussion.” The best comments happen when the jour- ! Die Zeit, Germany nalist joins in with the discussion: when “ there is an interactivity between comment writers and readers online.” ! Bergens Tidende, Norway

34 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Research at the University of Texas, US, ments over a period of 60-70 days, looking part of the Engaging News Project1, backs at how many comments different posts gar- up this sentiment. Project Director Natalie nered, how many likes, how much agree- Jomini Stroud and her team worked with a ment and disagreement there was and how local news TV station to gauge the impact civil or uncivil the comments were. of staff participation on comments. The Preliminary analysis showed that when project team set up a randomized schedule the political reporter was engaging in the for the station staff’s participation in the comments section, the discussion was more comments sections: some days they didn’t civil. “It’s really exciting to be able to dem- get involved at all, others they had a gener- onstrate that,” said Stroud, adding that ic member of staff contribute and others previous studies looking at this issue have they had the political reporter participate. been largely based on anecdotal evidence. They then tracked more than 2000 com-

Those that don’t participate

Despite this, there are many (32) pub- journalist’s objectivity in their reporting. lications whose staff do not participate in “We forbid the reporters from getting on comment threads on their sites; some be- the website and commenting on stories… cause of reluctance on the part of journal- That would mean that they are getting in ists or a lack of time, others on principle. there to give their opinions and we try to Some believe that comment sections are separate that. If there is an interesting story best left to the readers. “Journalists have a idea, the reporter can contact the user lot of occasions to express themselves and posting that directly or privately through that’s a space for readers,” said La Tribune email.” de Genève, Switzerland. Several other publications have found “We don’t interfere with comments,” that journalists simply don’t have suf!cient said The Straits Times, Singapore. “If there time or the will to participate, even though is a big issue at hand and we really want to the community or online editor thinks it’s a have a discussion with our public we organ- good idea. ise a proper structure for engagement, we “We are really trying to have journalists set up a live blog, and announce that we’re participating in the discussion, which isn’t doing that, maybe with a panel of experts.” easy because they are not used to have that “We try to keep the commenting space kind of exposure or to have a conversation as clean as possible from our interference. with readers,” said Público, Portugal. Pro- In a particular situation, when required, we gress is happening, however: “Right now can post a comment from the newsroom , when someone has reported a mistake explaining something,” said La Nación, Ar- in an article, they they thank them in the gentina. comments and advise that the article has For El Siglo de Torréon, Mexico, the issue been corrected.” is that participating could detract from the

1 Engaging News Project, http://engagingnewsproject.org

35 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

How much is being deleted?

One of commenting’s greatest strengths The main reason for deleting or block- is that it allows for a multitude of voices to ing comments was generally offensive be heard. But what happens when a com- content, cited by 39 editors and managers ment just constitutes undesired noise or as one of the key reasons. Next was hate contains vile language or illegal material? speech which came up 26 times, followed “Just delete it” was the main response we by profanity/bad language at 22, personal heard. attacks at 21 and spam at 20. All of the 97 publications we spoke to Seventeen editors and managers cited that accept comments sometimes block irrelevant, off-topic comments as a main comments from being published or delete factor in deletion. Just 6 speci!cally men- them after publication. Out of these, 53 tioned trolling in answer to this question, were able to guess the percentage of com- but trolls came up in discussion a further 25 ments that were deleted. The !gures varied times during the interviews. massively, from 0.5% to about 60%, with Racism was the most commonly-cited an average deletion rate of 11% (without type of discrimination, with 16 mentions, two outliers at 50 and 60%, the average is compared with sexism which was only men- 9.3%). tioned 3 times. More cited abuse directed at other com- menters than at the journalist or the sub- ject of the article as a reason to delete.

Factors that lead news outlets to block/delete comments

36 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Really it’s personal attacks - attacking the It’s a thin line of course. Politically we can person rather than the idea. It’s the differ- accept even very extreme opinions but only “ ence between saying you’re an idiot and “ if it’s an opinion and not an insult.” your ideas are unfounded. We have a rule ! Kathimerini, Greece in not revelling in the misfortune of others or wishing violence if they’ve done terrible At a certain point we close the discussion things: in this country you’re innocent until when it’s only one way traffic and only proven guilty.” “ bashing and when it’s no longer relevant ! Denver Post, US to the article we close the thread. Mostly because of hate speech and derogatory I tend not to worry about libel that much. I language,” tend to worry more about reader sensitivi- ! Dawn, Pakistan. “ ties. It’s less about particular persons and more about groups of people. If people are being offensive towards gays, or Jews or blacks, or whatever – that’s something that tends to bother us more than someone call- ing a politician names.” ! O Globo, Brazil

Hiding rather than deleting

Some news outlets have a two-stage With the hide function, the comments that process for comment blocking: comments are not fully offensive but could be contro- can either be fully deleted, or hidden, so “ versial are hidden and a note says, ‘some that readers have to actively choose to read people think this comment is inappropriate them. but if you want to read it click here.’” ! Capital Weekly, Bulgaria We can soft delete the comment where we can hide it if it could upset people or if it’s borderline. There’s an option for people to “ We have had complaints from older readers click the comment and see it. Or we hard de- who find [comments] offensive. That’s why lete it and write a note in the user’s profile.” the commentaries are collapsed by default ! The Denver Post, US “ and you have to open them to read them.” ! El Espectador, Colombia

37 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Banning commenters entirely

Many editors and managers also have Some have two-phase systems for block- the option to block speci!c commenters ing offenders: entirely if they consistently break the rules. We give yellow or red cards to them. Yellow Seventy one percent of those we spoke said means that we pre-moderate their com- that they sometimes block individuals, ei- ments more closely. Red card means they’ve ther by account or by IP address. “ been banned.” Numbers of users/accounts blocked var- ! De Standaard, Belgium ied considerably: t
about 600 user accounts in the past If there are persistant breaches of commu- 4 months at IDNES, Czech Republic nity standards we can ban people entirely t
about 12 a month at Winnipeg Free from posting or we can place them into a Press, Canada “ pre-moderated environment so we’ll review t
about 12 over the last 4 years at La their individual comments.” Silla Vacia, Colombia ! The Guardian, UK News organisations also go about block- ing users in different ways. A couple hide comments from everyone Several struggle with the fact that but the offending user - to make it appear blocked commenters keep creating new as though there is little interest surround- accounts. At The Seattle Times, “We’ve had ing their comment: people create over 100 accounts.” I can hide comments and ban users if I rec- “They always !nd a way to come back,” ognize their name and it’s an ongoing issue. said the editor of El Siglo de Torréon, Mex- The comment will still show up for them but ico, a sentiment that was echoed at O Glo- “ not for everyone. They don’t know. I assume bo, Brazil. “You can’t stop someone from after a while they’ll figure out that it’s not commenting if they really want,” said the showing up because no one is responding editor of Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland. At The to them.” Times of India, staff try to block offending ! BuzzFeed, US commenters by their IP address. Staff at SME, Slovakia, do the same: “We had huge We use what we call a bozo filter - that problems during the elections with paid user still sees their comments but no one commenters: the same person with several else does. It’s a ‘don’t feed the trolls’ idea: accounts. We check IP addresses, and allow “ they’re posting in their own isolated world one account for each. We blocked the rest.” and no one else can see it... It works pretty well.” ! Winnipeg Free Press, Canada

38 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Some are willing to give commenters a We only block people for spam, we don’t second chance: block people altogether - maybe once or At Fædrelandsvennen, Norway, staff “ twice in our history but generally our policy will unblock users and give them another is not to ban people.” chance after a few weeks. ! The New York Times, US At the Winnipeg Free Press in Canada, commenters must do a quiz1 on the site’s No, because we believe in reform. They terms and conditions to have their accounts have a right to have their comment ap- reinstated. “Then I know they’ve read it,” “ proved or not on a comment by comment the editor said. “They can get access back - basis, not user basis.” 100 percent on the quiz and they can come ! The Post, Zambia back. If they’re blocked again they blocked forever.” At Die Zeit, Germany: “We email them and most of them complain immediately and then we explain. We also review a lot of the cases. We block someone but if they apologise and promise to behave better we’ll reactivate their pro!le again.” Out of those who don’t block users, some don’t have the technical capability, and for some the issue just hasn’t arisen (yet). But some operate on principle:

1 http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/Winnipeg-Free-Press-Commenters-Quiz-193388041.html

39 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

How to !nd the best comments

How to separate the good, appropriate ments. Either, these staff picks are dis- or most insightful comments from the in- played in a separate section or tab, or users ane, or vulgar nonsense is a question many can choose to sort by staff recommenda- publications grapple with. Should there be tions. Some even give these more promi- a meritocracy of comments, more contex- nence higher up on the page. tualisation or peer review from within the Helsingin Sanomat, Finland, which has online community? a rating system that allows users to say not The traditional commenting thread has only whether they agree or disagree, but long been simple, and chronological. But also to say “this was well-argued”, “this as commenting systems become ever more was not well-argued”. If a lot of people important, many publications are already think that the comment is well-argued it thinking about how they can use software gets more points, and they get even higher to encourage meaningful debate. points if people say they don’t agree but it Forty-seven news organisations had is well-argued. An algorithm puts them in some way to distinguish the ‘best’ com- order of how relevant the opinion is in the ments, although in several cases this just discussion, and readers can choose if they meant a ‘like’ button, without any possibil- want to display comments according to the ity to re-order comments through this !lter. level of points they have received, or just As well as making the good comments chronologically. more visible, highlighting them rewards those commenters, mak- ing them feel valued and more likely to return to the site and contribute. Presenting the most thoughtful comments !rst can also help bolster moderation systems by drowning the more ir- relevant or inappropriate comments. The two most common ways that news organisa- tions distinguish com- ments are: - Allowing readers to recommend, like/dislike or thumbs up/thumbs down each comment. Some will allow readers to sort com- ments by highest rated. - Enabling staff to

recommend certain com- CommentsHelsinginon Sanomat’s website

40 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

BuzzFeed, US, enables editors to give In a redesign, commenting software comments badges to help guide the con- provider Disqus introduced changes so that versation. If, for example, a comment is not it was easier for users to disagree with a highly offensive but not constructive, an comment by voting it down, but less tempt- editor can give it a shaking head badge. ing to outright "ag a comment for abuse, “We’ve noted then that it’s not appropriate VP for business development Ro Gupta ex- and that will diffuse the situation,” hence plained. “Often in commenting systems we discouraging other readers from respond- see people use these features in the wrong ing. way. Just because they politically disagree with a comment they’ll "ag it as inappro- We have a feature called NYT picks1. If we priate.” The change led to a 79% drop in think a comment is particularly meritori- abuse reporting. Disqus also provides a ous, and the picks tab is the default tab for “ complex quality sort to display better com- older stories. On a new story we’ll have the ments higher. newest comments tab as default, but after Many who don’t allow for any way to 24 hours we’ll switch over to NYT picks distinguish particular comments would like which is a list of the curated comments that to do so, but lack the technical capabilities. we like the best… When we select comments One way to circumvent technical short- for our NYT picks, what we try to do is to comings is to print editor favorites in the get a wide range of views that are interest- printed paper. That can provide a similar ing, and so you’ll see a high proportion of incentive to offer an articulate, thoughtful conservative views in the NYT picks than comment. generally on the site, by design. That would A few don’t think it’s appropriate: be a way that we would prop up a minority view.” That would require a subjective judgment ! The New York Times, US that we really don’t want to make, because “ why would we single out one on top of an- other. The reader can decide for themselves whether a comment is partisan, fanatic or unhelpful or what comments are worth reading.” ! El Siglo de Torréon, Mexico

1 Perfectly Reasonable Question No. 5: On Comment ‘Picks,’ Margaret Sullivan, http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/02/perfectly-reasonable-question-no-5-on-comment-picks/

41 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities Times of India’s comment section comment India’s of Times

Some news outlets use points-based At Público, Portugal, a points system reward systems to encourage commenters. allows people to have different ‘levels’ of At The Times of India, readers accumu- reputation, and eventually awards mod- late points1 by reading, commenting on or erator status to some of these users. One recommending a story and these lead to a problem with this, however, is that “the variety of badges. As previously mentioned, reputation system gives points even to they get their photo displayed on the site. people who don’t post very constructive “We’ve seen a shift with this. People get comments. They risk having a high level of really excited,” said the editor. reputation even if they just say: “I agree At SME, Slovakia, “users can rate the with this”. We are afraid because we don’t comments with a button next to each one. know these readers very well, as they don’t You have a ‘karma,’ and if you write a good say that much, and we are worried about comment and a lot of people give you posi- what they’ll be going to do with their tive ratings, you will get a bigger karma. rights of moderation when they’ll get to The bigger your karma, the more rights and the !nal level.” privileges you get; you can even get to the moderating team.”

1 http://timeso!ndia.indiatimes.com/abouttimesrewards.cms

42 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Moderation on social networks

As well as their own comments sections Moderators don’t look at the Facebook page. on their sites, most news organisations A lot of people try to keep an eye on it but have a presence on major social networks “ we don’t have an organized way. Our social such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ media producer looks through the Facebook where their readers can leave comments or threads but those are not legally under- communicate more widely. neath our publication. Also there are not so Facebook and Google+, which allow many bad remarks there because people brands to create and manage their own have to operate under their own faces. Face- ‘pages,’ posting links to articles, photos or book threads are often much ‘cleaner.’” questions, for example, most closely re- ! Helsingin Sanomat, Finland semble a comment section. A news outlet doesn’t own its presence on the social me- We’re much more careful about what stories dia platform in the same way as it does its we post on Facebook because the modera- website, however. “ tion there is more difficult. I think people Many news organisations do not have post less sketchy things on Facebook be- the resources to moderate another plat- cause they are using real name but it’s not form as thoroughly as they do their own as closely moderated. We mostly use Face- sites, which as their own territory are the book to post interesting, good stories, rather !rst priority in most cases. Even if they do than the most controversial.” have the resources, there is no option to ! Winnipeg Free Press, Canada pre-moderate on a social network, and some refrain from posting their more con- We do moderate on Facebook, but very, very troversial stories to their Facebook pages lightly, if it is a hot story that we suspect because of this. “ that would need moderation. We would also The majority of publications therefore not put certain content on Facebook be- don’t moderate their Facebook pages and cause it is feeding the trolls. Certain types other social networks as heavily as their of stories - you know what kinds - we won’t own sites. Several also believe that the real because it’s not our platform.” identity policies make the discussion less ! News24, South Africa controversial. Anything offensive will be taken off – com- ments on Facebook tend to be much less “ serious, lots of one-liners. There are a lot, but the level of discussion is lower.” ! Project Syndicate, Czech Republic

43 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Help is at hand: outsourcing Moderation services

moderation is done by a journalist, it’s time Thirteen news organisations we spoke that they are not spending writing articles to, all European except one Canadian, or on other added-value activities. Out- outsource their online comment sourcing is also a more cost-ef!cient route moderation. rather than increasing head count by hiring t
Bergens Tidende, Norway dedicated moderators on staff. t
BBC, UK The experience and expertise: debates t
Corriere della Sera, Italy can "are up very quickly and it does take t
The Economist, UK a certain amount of expertise to handle a t
Faedrelandsvennen, Norway dif!cult situation. People get very angry if t
Kaleva, Finland their comments are deleted so you need a t
Libération, France certain amount of specialist experience to t
Le Monde, France know when to remove comments and also t
Norran, Sweden how to calm people down. Moderation t
La Repubblica, Italy !rms also stay on top of developments in t
La Tribune de Genève, Switzerland social media. t
Volkskrant, Netherlands There are some related practical motiva- t
Winnipeg Free Press, Canada tions, they believe: Moderation should be carried out over We spoke to three different moderation night and weekends and many organisa- companies, based in the UK (eModeration), tions are not equipped for that. France (Netino) and Canada (ICUC). They Companies will often log all comments gave two key reasons why they believe made, what was deleted and why, and can news organisations and others use their provide this information as needed. services: Moderation companies often provide The cost: comments are seen as a must- services in different languages. have but with very low added value. If

The process

eModeration has about 15 media clients erators around the world, mainly in Mada- and works with many other large brands. gascar and North Africa, some in India and The company employs about 350 modera- China. Some are based in France as some tors who mainly work in the UK and the clients speci!cally request France-based US with a few in Europe and Australia, said moderators, CEO Jéremie Mani explained, Tamara Middleton, CEO. but for !nancial reasons the work attracts Netino, founded 10 years ago, works more dedicated individuals in a country like with 20+ media companies out of a total of Madagascar. about 60 clients. A staff of 20 in Paris work Canada-based ICUC has more than a with just over 100 French-speaking mod- dozen news clients. Its moderation is “very

44 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

location-contextual” said the company’s Additionally, there is usually close con- president and founder Keith Bilous. tact between the moderating !rm and the Moderation guidelines are usually put publisher client. Bilous from ICUC said there together by the company in collaboration was daily contact with clients. with the client. For example, the guidelines As the Economist community editor often de!ne defamation, give examples explained, speaking of his relationship of this and potentially defamatory words, with eModeration: “I have a dedicated ac- and invite the moderator to ask him/herself count manager who contacts me with a questions about the comment, such as ‘can weekly report of what they’ve taken down you identify the target?’ even if no indi- and what they’ve left up and some basic viduals have been named. headline !gures and percentages of what At Netino and ICUC, moderators are they’ve deleted. I have a personal relation- usually dedicated to just one client so that ship with them and they know that there they can be thoroughly familiar with just are certain things that I like to be escalated one set of guidelines. “If you took a mod- to me. So occasionally they’ll contact me erator from Nouvel Observateur and asked and say that they have lots of comments him to moderate Le Point it would be a dis- on a certain topic… Normally I don’t let aster,” Mani said. them delete users but I ask them to tell me At eModeration however, modera- candidates, so commonly they will point to tors often work for more than one client. a user that they think is behaving badly on Usually clients with similar guidelines are an article and ask if I want to do anything grouped together, but sometimes it’s good about it.” for the moderator to have a change, Lit- La Tribune de Genève , Switzerland, tleton believes. “We have an American spoke of the “very direct” communication news client where the content is very in- between the newsroom and Netino and tense - vitriolic and hate fueled… From the mentioned that the newsroom sometimes moderator’s point of view you don’t want alerts the moderators to particularly con- to spend all day every day just removing troversial issues. homophobic and racist comments – it’s nice One complaint that arose from a local to do something a bit "uf!er.” news organisation was that the moderators At each company, moderators are from the outsourcer it used were not from trained and tested on the guidelines of the the area, so were not familiar with the local clients they will work with. Most clients re- people and places. The three moderating quire social media monitoring also. companies we spoke to all offer location At Netino, moderators provide an ad- speci!c moderators when necessary, but at ditional service by marking particularly a national rather than a local level. interesting comments that the client is then alerted to, in case the editorial team want to make use of them. Using a moderation company doesn’t mean that the publisher loses control over their comments. “We also have an internal team who keep an eye on the comments as they are appearing. We can override any particular decision and take down com- ments if we need to,” said the BBC, UK.

45 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Commenting software

News outlets can build their own com- This track record can also be useful to menting software, or they can use a pro- moderators when they are going through vider such as Livefyre, Facebook Comments comments. Each commenter has a reputa- or Disqus. Disqus is used by close to three tion category – low, average or high – so million websites worldwide, said Ro Gupta, reliable commenters are distinguishable . vice president for business development. The Mail & Guardian, South Africa, said The tool is used by at least 12 of the organi- people can always get around “the system” sations that we interviewed, more than any but that the ranking function helps under- other external software. stand frequent commenters. “People can The advantages of using Disqus’ soft- get a high or low reputation. It will happen ware, Gupta said - apart from the fact that when people comment quite often and it much easier and cheaper (it’s free) to set so they get a track record. If they get de- up - include the fact that people believe leted a lot their reputation gets lower and that “you can really control quality by en- lower. I remember one reader having to get forcing certain identities.” Disqus allows banned. It’s so rare though,” publishers to choose whether or not to re- Based on reputation signals combined quire registration, and allows pseudonyms with positive feedback from the communi- when people register, but they are the ty, Disqus provides a sort-by-quality option same pseudonyms across all the sites that to try to keep the better comments at the use Disqus. top and the “riskier” ones further down, or Gupta believes that this is also bene!cial collapsed. for the user. One of the reasons Disqus was Disqus is also seeking to solidify a new founded, he said, was in response to the revenue stream for the publishers that use “siloed, disparate experience on the web its commenting tools: Promoted Discovery. for a user.” Publishers and brands who publish content “One of the bene!ts of a common tool can place promoted links alongside the or- is that it makes it much more frictionless for ganic recommended links that Disqus pro- a user to be signed in every place they go – vides. Links can only be to editorial content, that reduces a lot of the barriers,” he said. and not to a store or service. It’s optional “Another bene!t is developing a track re- for publishers, Gupta said, but many have cord and reputation that they can show on opted in. their commenting pro!le from site to site and that the publisher can also see.”

46 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Making the value of comments clear

“I think the biggest challenge is under- reasons: mainly because it’s better for standing the value in a very tangible way of avoiding spam, the editor said, and also comment discussion and community-build- because storing the content outside the ing,” Gupta said. The tool’s redesign seeks publication’s website might provide them to make measuring the value of comments with better legal protection. a little less “fuzzy,” he said. The Daily Monitor, Uganda, said that Disqus has been tracking how many the number of commenters had increased people scroll down to the comments on a since implementing Disqus, most probably page, and found that 54% of all visits to because signing in is now easier. sites that use Disqus see the comments, up Kathimerini, Greece, however, said it has from 42% last year. had some problems with Disqus: disappear- Prachatai, Thailand uses Disqus for two ing threads, which anger readers. CommentsMonitor’spoweredwebsiteDisqus by The on Daily

47 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Facebook comments

Another external software option is be posting stories to their friends’ news Facebook comments. The social network feeds when they comment on a site, with offers a commenting plug-in that news or- a link back. It can also be used in parallel ganisations and others can make use of to with an organisation’s own system. allow comments on their sites. As Facebook explains on its site, A key motivation for implementing Fa- “Friends and people who like the Page can cebook comments is that Facebook’s real then respond to the discussion by liking name policy is expected to ‘civilise’ the or replying to the comment directly in the conversation. Another is that it is free and news feed or in the Comments box on your easy to implement, and that it potentially site. Threads stay synchronized across Fa- increases visibility of, and traf!c to, the cebook and on the Comments box on your publisher’s site, as by leaving a ‘Post to Fa- site regardless of where the comment was cebook’ button checked, readers will also made.” News24’scomment section, using FacebookComments

48 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Facebook also offers moderation tools: and forth with our content. These people get - Admins can choose to make the de- to know each other. There is a sense of com- fault for new comments entered either munity… That community is already there. “visible to everyone” or “has limited vis- The idea of a news site, or any site, being a ibility” on the site (i.e., the comment is only destination is a question and we go where visible to the commenter and their friends), our readers are.” to help mitigate irrelevant content. ! Dallas Morning News, US - Admins can also blacklist words and However, not everyone is so positive ban users. If a new comment is published about it. from a banned user or contains a blacklist- ed word, this comment will automatically We experimented using Facebook as a have limited visibility. platform for comments on a sub-site about It also offers a grammar !lter, which will “ a year ago. It lasted about three months add punctuation and spaces, expand slang and we decided it doesn’t work for us… words, !x common grammar mistakes (e.g. Our volume of actual dialogue dropped to dont), and trim extra white space. almost nothing. People were too reluctant Several news organisations have chosen to have their real name associated to their to use Facebook for commenting. identities when they were participating in that stuff. So instead of 40 comments, and Early in 2012 we made two fundamental constructive ones, there are five comments changes to the system which greatly im- spouting out their own opinion and not proved the quality of comments and our “ caring what they say. So even though it’s ability to weed out the trolls. First, all com- free, it didn’t work. Basically, to me, people menters must log in before commenting. who move to Facebook comments are say- They can do this only with their Facebook ing that they don’t really care if there is no account. This means that we can track us- discussion or community going on in their ers and their accounts on our system, and comment thread.” take the necessary steps should they contra- ! The Seattle Times, US vene our policies… The obvious advantage is that they have Facebook identities - you’d We tend to notice Facebook users are more be able to block, delete profiles that don’t deplorable and aggressive. It’s always very meet standards. Once we did that we saw surprising since their name is associated an increase in quality (and a little decrease “ with it. With Buzzfeed comments you can in volume). Some people complained that make up your own name.” they didn’t want to go on with Facebook ! BuzzFeed, US but it wasn’t a lot so we went ahead with it. They have a choice to share on Facebook or A lot of people think that Facebook com- they can untick the box.” ments are a saving grace. It increases your ! News24, South Africa “ Facebook sign-ups, maybe, but I don’t like it because I don’t like giving up my content We think users have already created profiles to a third party like Facebook… if Facebook and they use them for all kinds of things goes away I don’t know where those com- (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook). We use them “ ment threads will go. I want us to own the to log into so many services that I think we comment threads.” want to be an extension of this ecosystem: ! The Denver Post, US using it for our website and linking back

49 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

50 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Issues and challenges Legal accountability: awareness and repercussions

As mentioned previously, a key consideration for news organisations in determining their moderation strategy, is how legally liable they are for the comments made by users on their site. Lack of clarity There was a striking lack of clarity con- Right now, it really depends on a judge or a cerning the precise laws surrounding reader lawyer asking for us to be held accountable. comments. The view that this is a hazy area “ It has never happened though. There’s no with little legal precedent came up again clear law in Brazil about that.” and again: ! O Globo, Brazil

The truth is it’s unclear – there is a signifi- That’s a grey area. There’s no law, no crimi- cant grey area over what the law is. nal defamation in this country anymore. No But I guess the understanding is that if we “ going to court, or anyone, else for a com- remove a comment swiftly when we receive “ ment. The government has repeatedly over a complaint about it, then we are not re- the years threatened to bring about guide- sponsible for having published it in the first lines that would include the registration of place.” websites. For any site that has news, there ! The Economist, UK are various extrajudicial ways to control the content on these sites, but there is no law It depends. Rather, the law is not clear in that holds me accountable for the content that: there haven’t been any legal issues in that goes up on the site or in comments.” this area yet.” “ ! Groundviews, Sri Lanka ! Haaretz, Israel

If we’re responsible just because we’re It’s a bit of grey area in Canada. We have moderating comments I’m not sure, I guess a disclaimer that says we are not respon- we would be, but that has been changing sible for what our users post. We take the “ “ over the past couple of years depending on approach that would not want anything each case. I don’t think we would be but I illegal on our site and we’re careful to not don’t think that’s decided.” allow that but I think it’s largely untested in ! Die Zeit, Germany Canada.” ! Winnipeg Free Press, Canada

51 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

I don’t believe that there has been a land- It’s a grey area. But we consider ourselves mark case where something has been legally responsible.” “ truly decided on this. Based on current “ ! Corriere della Sera, Italy precedents we are under the belief that we are not legally responsible for the content We don’t really know what the legislation of these due to the safe-harbour clause. As is on that. We think that the disclaimer is long as we don’t make it a policy to pro- “ enough to disassociate us from the com- actively edit comments before they are pub- ments.” lished then we are not taking responsibility ! El Siglo del Torréon, Mexico for the comments and we are not legally liable. Again, I think this is more in legal theory than proven.” ! The New York Times, US

Repercussions

What is clear is that the fear of being Yes, we are legally accountable, we are liable for reader comments leads to two responsible for anything that lands on our quite different moderating strategies. “ site. As far as I understand, from the law- In many countries, including much of yers, if we didn’t moderate comments at all, Western Europe, news organisations are we would actually be better off: we wouldn’t liable for comments if they moderate pre- be liable. It doesn’t deter us though. We are publication, but not if they leave them to about building a community and encour- be reported by readers. aging debate so we help it be responsible In the case of The Economist, UK, for rather than allow people to throw out nasty example, the legal liability is a key reason comments.” for choosing a reader-reporting approach. ! The Star, Kenya “It deters us from moderating [comments] In other areas, the threat of liability is more accurately: it deters us from things the reason for much tighter pre-publication like reading every comment. There are moderation. lots of reasons why we don’t want to read At Radio Television, Serbia, “We would every comment before it appears, but one prefer to leave the comments really open of them is the fact that there would be lots but the kind of language used is just not and lots of decisions that we would have to acceptable, simply impossible. Better to be make that we could then be held responsi- safe than sorry. According to Serbian law, ble for. If we wait for the users to complain comments are part of the story and you are then we don’t have to make those decisions responsible for the content. We are totally and we can’t be held responsible for get- responsible for whatever comes out on our ting it wrong.” website so we have this need to control Some aren’t deterred, and moderate things.” regardless: At the New Zealand Herald, which also moderates pre-publication, “We do not publish any content that is potentially libel- ous. In keeping with New Zealand law, we

52 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

do not publish any comments that can be At the Apple Daily, Taiwan, the publica- considered discriminatory on the basis of tion is not afraid to take responsibility for race, religion, gender, sexual preference, comments, the editor said. But in order to nationality, age, disability, etc.” protect their readers, they only leave com- ments up for 24 hours, as the police can demand IP addresses of commenters.

Speci!c legal cases

Many of the publications had not seen any mediaries are deemed responsible for third- legal action taken against them. The most party content. After the case, the paper common reasons for those that had, were for closed the online forum discussions, which libel and defamation. Some examples: had provided an open platform for peo- Der Standard, Austria, explained that ple to discuss 200 to 300 topics a day. That if anyone feels a comment is defamatory produced a huge amount of content to be against his/her person, they can ask the monitored: 2000 entries per day. Comments newspaper for the user data to sue that at the end of the stories are less demand- person. The paper has to consider if that ing and overall less risky, Chiranuch said, as person is rightfully asking for the user there are fewer, they are shorter, and they data, if not, then the paper is liable, and are more focused on the story. there have been cases where they have IDNES, Czech Republic, has seen two been sued. In one instance, a public au- cases. In one case, readers wrote comments thority asked for the user data of someone that claimed a real estate company was thought to have published con!dential treating its clients badly, and the company information. The paper made the decision sued IDNES for leaving the comments up. not to give the authority the user’s data “Our opinion was that they were writing and were sued, but they won. their experiences and that’s okay,” the edi- Prachatai, Thaliand, experienced a tor said. IDNES won the case. widely-reported legal case that began in The Nation, Kenya was sued by the 2009. In 2012 a Thai court found web edi- president for a comment but the case was tor Chiranuch Premchaiporn guilty for fail- settled out of court. ing to react quickly enough in removing Público, Portugal, is currently involved some comments that were critical of the in a legal case in which both the editor and country’s royalty. She was given an eight- the person who published the comment are month suspended jail sentence and a !ne implicated. The anonymous comment ac- of 20,000THB (€483). Under Thai law, inter- cused a lawyer of corruption.

53 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

US vs EU intermediary protection laws

The laws protecting news websites from “In Europe, the line is drawn in a differ- liability for comments vary widely from coun- ent place,” he said. “We’ve seen some cases try to country. In their role as ‘intermediaries,’ where simply creating a space that invited news outlets bear a degree of responsibility certain types of content, even if not inten- for the content written by others on their tional, has led some courts to place liability sites, often depending on the level of involve- on the site operator.” ment they take in publishing the content. In the EU, intermediary liability is regulat- The US has the most favourable interme- ed by the Electronic Commerce Directive (EU diary liability laws, said Andrew McDiarmid, Directive 2000/31/EC). According to a press senior policy analyst at the Washington, D.C.- release at the time of the adoption of the di- based Center for Democracy and Technology. rective’s legal framework, “To eliminate exist- Section 230 of the Communications Decency ing legal uncertainties and to avoid divergent Act shields intermediaries from liability for approaches between Member State, the Di- third-party content even when they do take rective establishes an exemption from liability some kind of editorial action. for intermediaries where they play a passive “No provider or user of an interactive role as a ‘mere conduit’ of information from computer service shall be treated as the third parties and limits service providers’ li- publisher or speaker of any information ability for other ‘intermediary’ activities such provided by another information content as the storage of information.” provider,” reads Section 230, specifying It is this policy that has led to the preva- that: “No provider or user of an interactive lence of notice-and-action or notice-and- computer service shall be held liable on takedown systems that mean that content account of… any action voluntarily taken hosts are essentially liable for content once in good faith to restrict access to or avail- it has been drawn to their attention that it is ability of material that the provider or user offensive or potentially illegal. The problems considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, with this system, McDiarmid said, are both !lthy, excessively violent, harassing, or oth- that although something like copyright in- erwise objectionable, whether or not such fringement can be relatively easy to spot, de- material is constitutionally protected.” !ning something as defamation would usual- As McDiarmid explained, this means ly require some legal analysis, and that many that “the operator of a site is free to mod- intermediaries will almost invariably comply erate and cultivate the sort of environment with takedown requests if they face liability, they want without assuming total liability without necessarily considering whether the for everything that they do let through.” content actually merits this. “We feel very strongly that liability for It is extremely important to protect intermediaries – whether that be someone intermediaries from liability, McDiarmid like Facebook that hosts a broad array of said, and allow open space for expression content online or someone like a newspa- and counter-speech. “Inevitably, as you try per that is opening up their site for com- create rules that limit the space for expres- ment and conversation - neither should sion there will be mistakes and over-broad be held liable for what is effectively third application, and valuable speech will be party content that they don’t control the chilled as you try to curtail what is illegal creation of,” McDiarmid said. and offensive.”

54 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Freedom of expression: moderation promotes rather than limits

Editors and managers around the world The Star website is our space so we set the largely agreed that although freedom of rules. The rules are very clear. We allow expression was a valuable right and they “ vigorous debate and comments but we were pleased to offer a space where their don’t want to to propagate lies, hate speech, readers could express themselves, they propaganda because at the end of it we were not limiting their readers’ freedom are the medium in which people read that by deleting or blocking comments because comment. The person reading that com- there is now an abundance of places where ment won’t just be looking at who left it but people can express themselves online. they’ll be looking at The Star. So we think A common feeling was that they have a we have pushed the limits in terms of en- right and obligation to protect their own couraging freedom of speech.” site: ! The Star, Kenya

People are free to express themselves every- We are hosts of our website. When you invite where but this is our publication and we someone to your home you don’t allow them decide what to publish on it. I think it’s a “ to say hate speech, so why on our website? misconception when people think that we “ While we believe in freedom of speech and are responsible for taking care of the free- free Internet, we just don’t want some com- dom of expression by publishing everything ments to be on our website.” that comes in.” ! Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland ! Helsingin Sanomat, Finland

From our point of view as a news organisa- Freedom of expression is quite different. tion, the priority isn’t freedom of expres- This is about posting something on a plat- sion, our priority is that there is a good form that someone owns, which is open for “ “ editorially balanced debate. A series of opinions but only abiding certain rules.” comments that we think can help add value ! Reuters, UK to the audience’s understanding of a story and their experience of a story, and help We are not a government body so we are maybe give greater diversity in terms of not responsible for ensuring freedom of the way the story is discussed. They’re not speech – we provide a message board and “ necessarily mutually exclusive things but if we maintain it so it’s our responsibility to we had a choice between the two we’d defi- make sure that the content there is not of- nitely go down the editorial route.” fensive or against the policies which people ! BBC, UK come to our site for.” ! The New York Times, US Another was that, as aptly expressed by an editor at Serbia’s Juzne Vesti: “we don’t ban free speech, we ban hate speech.”

55 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

We are not censoring points of view, we are We are concerned about the abuse of free- censoring the inflammatory way things are dom of expression and we think the way to “ said.” “ protect everyone’s freedom of expression is ! O Globo, Brazil not allowing any abuse” ! The Nation, Kenya Freedom of speech is not freedom to insult each other. We are responsible for having a I’ve seen a lot of abusive comments from “ civil debate” government leaders using different names ! La Tribune de Genève, Switzerland “ and they appear on Burmese Facebook - hate speech to small minorities. It’s very The person will often know that their com- damaging and I don’t feel guilty preventing ment is not going to be published: they are the spread of hate speech.” “ being violent, offensive and they know a ! The Irrawady, Myanmar newspaper would never publish. If the per- son wanted their comment to be published We only block comments when they are they could have written it in different lan- offensive, we’re not limiting freedom of guage.” “ expression, we are protecting people from ! Zero Hora, Brazil offensive content” ! El Mercurio, Chile Several argued that by moderating com- ments they were ensuring freedom of ex- Several !nd the balance between ensur- pression rather than limiting it: ing free speech, while maintaining a con- structive dialogue, to be tough. I would say that sometimes not deleting a comment is more limiting to freedom of It’s an everlasting struggle to publish as “ expression rather than deleting it. That is many as possible, to allow everyone to have a space for debate and should not become “ their say without destroying meaningful a space where the ones with a louder voice conversation. For example, if we are in the and insults prevail. Moderation is impor- middle of an important political discussion tant to protect everyone’s freedom of ex- in our comments and you have two sides - pression” e.g. pro-life/pro-abortion. If you allow 20 ! La Repubblica, Italy comments in a row that are pro life - that is not meaningful, but should we let everyone We do believe that people’s freedom of ex- say that? … Are we too lenient? Are we too pression is limited within other rights. We harsh? It’s a day to day discussion. We are “ do believe that people have the right to get trying to have as much published without along, to inform and discuss openly. But we insulting, without hurting feelings or com- have established that if we delete something mitting any form of discrimination.” it is impinging on the rights of others. It is ! Blic, Serbia very exceptional and therefore we would not think that we are censoring anybody.” We often discuss within colleagues whether ! El Espectador, Colombia a comment should be published or not. We “ really try our best to allow everyone to ex- press themselves but they should follow the rules and not be offensive” ! Público, Portugal

56 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

There are tough calls to be made every day. I think, if you delete comments simply We have readers that are widely accused of because they might be offensive then you “ being anti-Semitic for example. These read- “ might run into trouble because it might be- ers, in some cases, are very knowledgeable come a form of censorship. so you shouldn’t and they are able to cite the historical prec- over-edit. We are very careful, we want peo- edents but to the extent that they are still ple to debate on our website, we don’t want using stereotyping language. We’d still have to stifle any voices – that is our general to respond and recognize the potential for it view. So mostly we’ll delete it because it’s to be interpreted as hate speech. That’s just defamatory.” one example.” ! City Press, South Africa ! The Wall Street Journal, US But for others there’s a clear line be- tween what’s passable or not. Sometimes I read things as the comment moderator that I don’t feel too comfortable Most of the time of it’s clear. The people who “ about but are just differing opinon: you attack are very obvious. Usually it’s just have to be as neutral as possible. We had “ outright profane language. If there’s any someone say everyone who is gay should smart criticsm or attack it will pass. But be murdered - no doubt that should be when it’s blunt profanity it never passes. It’s removed. So I think a lot of it is just sitting very clear.” there and thinking, I might not agree with ! Al-Akhbar English, Lebanon what this person is saying, but we do also Vorarlberg Online in Austria also said value that people have different opinions. that as long as there are clear guidelines in Once you are attacking someone you’ve place, it’s easy to know when a commenter crossed the line.” crosses the line. ! BuzzFeed, US

57 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Tackling hate speech

Hate speech was frequently listed as one “We have a law against hate speech – of the reasons for deleting comments -di- it’s probably a law that hasn’t been used rectly by 29 publications – but few seemed very much because it’s really dif!cult to to consider it to be an insurmountable use, I think,” said an editor at a paper in problem. Many editors seemed unclear Denmark. about any legal de!nitions of hate speech Many speci!ed that their guidelines ban in their countries, and in fact about its hate speech, but few have proactive meas- overall de!nition. ures to tackle it and most are not educating As Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland said, “the their readers and commenters on this issue. line between hate speech and opinion is Just telling people not to do something very thin. We dont want to be censors but doesn’t mean that they won’t do it, and we have to take care, it’s really thin and doesn’t mean that they will understand really dif!cult.” The paper uses its readers why. to help decide whether things are worthy None of the publications truly had pro- of deletion: “everyone who is reading the active ways to invite minority opinions. opinion can indicate a plus or minus on a Many expressed a similar strategy to Públi- comment. If we are not sure if we should co, Portugal: “We have rules on countering keep it, we look at how many thumbs up or hate speech and xenophobia but we don’t thumbs down there are.” actively invite minority opinions. We just “Hate speech in the South African con- hope to have them.” The New York Times, text: there is a requirement that there be US, did stress that when selecting com- an imminent danger,” said City Press. “It’s ments for the NYT Picks section they “try a bit dif!cult to classify something as hate to get a wide range of views that are inter- speech without going to court, but particu- esting”. This includes minority viewpoints, larly with some of the comments on race, which on the New York Times site, means for example if there’s a call to action to conservative. attack another race group, that would be approaching hate speech.”

58 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

How much action should publications take?

The main way that hate speech is being outweighed by the need for greater online directly dealt with is by deletion. All publi- civility,” believe the authors of the book cations delete comments that they consider ‘Viral Hate: Containing Its Spread on the to be hate speech, whether they !nd it Internet,’ Abraham H. Foxman and Christo- or they are alerted to it by their readers. pher Wolf. Most will not take any further action. Even “Most of our commenting is construc- though challenging hateful comments tive. We are a real name community so our with counter-speech, rather than silencing readers are not the average web reader them, might be considered by many to be a hiding behind a cloak of anonymity. We more effective method to truly tackle hate have real name standards here and com- speech, the legal, moral and reputational menting histories and pro!les are visible so risks mean that this is not a real option for it’s almost like a social network,” said The most. Wall Street Journal. Several publications who moderate pre- When IDNES, Czech Republic, switched publication said that they are seeing less to a real name system, “The quality im- and less hate speech because commenters proved dramatically,” the editor said. “The have come to realize that there’s no point comments are much better now and we in posting it, as it just won’t get through don’t have to erase so many.” the !lter. This is not always a reliable pre- But, as identi!ed previouly in this re- ventative measure, however, as getting port, despite the problems associated with hate speech past even rigorous automated, anonymity, it is also considered by some to or even human, !lters can be done if it is be an essential guarantee of free speech, subtle enough. Le Monde, France, sees “ex- and real name policies are hard to enforce treme right propaganda on racist issues,” without asking for some kind of of!cial but it is dif!cult to block the individuals identi!cation, which is likely to limit pariti- posting it “because they became very sub- caption. tle and never really cross the line despite Staff involvement in the discussion trying to be provocative.” threads can also help to clamp down on in- Although not targeted speci!cally at civility. “The best way to ensure the discus- hate speech, many news organisations are sion is fruitful is when we also participate taking measures to tackle the wider issue of and we try to do it more and more,” said incivility in comment threads. Der Standard, Austria. “We’ve discovered Real name policies are generally seen that participating in discussions is probably as encouraging more respectful and less the best way to raise the level of debate. uncivil conversation. For some, it is the People act very differently when they see anonymity of the Internet that enables the that somebody from the newsroom is ac- kind of anti-social behaviour such as hate tually involved in the discussion,” said Die speech. “It is time for Internet intermediar- Zeit, Germany. ies voluntarily to consider requiring either the use of real names or the registration of real names in circumstances, such as the comments section for news articles, where the bene!ts of anonymous posting are

59 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Speci!c cases

The Star, Kenya, has had signi!cant “In the lead up to the election, the gov- problems with hate speech. Usually the ernment tried to ensure that there was no site operates post-publication modera- hate speech online and social media. ”This tion (using Disqus), but during the 2013 could be interpreted, the paper said, as election campaign the paper started to “subtle intimidation of media houses and pre-moderate because of the volume of journalists.” hate speech it received in comment areas. The editor believes, however, that the “During the elections, it was such a tense government should play some role in re- moment, people were so into their politi- ducing the volume of online hate speech. cal camps: all they wanted was a platform He suggested that a few of the more to air out their opinions. This wasn’t going “rabid” distributors of hate speech should anywhere - hate speech after hate speech,” be charged and !ned to “send a message.” the web administrator/journalist said. “So However, he said that the government we decided to do pre-moderation… Sud- seems to be tending towards censorship for denly they couldn’t see their comments im- everyone: “They have a list of words that mediately on the site. It was kind of unfair Kenyans should stop using. I really worry but it worked during that period.” about that -- you’re talking about a very A report from the Nairobi technology serious direct threat to media freedom.” centre iHub and the crowdsourcing com- Groundviews, Sri Lanka, has seen a major pany Ushahidi also found that online hate reduction in hate speech, the site’s founder speech proliferated in the weeks before reported, due to his efforts to educate and the March 2013 elections1. The researchers engage with commenters. “When we started began collecting information in September there were a lot of trolls and I suppose look- 2012 and recorded hate speech by degree ing back the majority were trolls and hate of severity with the goal of !nding non- speech,” he said, but “now I’m barely taking governmental solutions to combatting down anything unless it’s totally off topic.” hate speech and the possibility that it could If the site receives an unsuitable com- spark violence on the ground. The Kenyan ment, in the case that the commenter has government reportedly used a software to provided a valid email address, “I say to identify hate speech, but the researchers them ‘hey, you have a really good argu- in this case used their own eyes to identify ment but the way you’ve said that, or hate speech in different vernaculars that couched that, contravenes our submission could circumvent automated !lters. guidelines.’ And I urge them to rewrite the During the elections, Kenyans were comment and submit it back for considera- mindful of hate speech with the violence tion. And surprisingly around 90 percent, and mass displacements from the 2007- when there’s a valid email address and I’ve 2008 elections not far behind them. How- written to those folks, they’ve gotten back ever, the Star, Kenya said its decision to pre- with a comment I could put back.” moderate was not just to shield its readers, but because the government was essential- ly calling on news publishers to play a role in preventing the spread of hate speech.

1 Umati; Monitoring Online Dangerous Speech, February and March 2013 report. Ihub Research and Ushahidi

60 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Best practices

The over-arching aim of moderating input to shine while discouraging unsub- comments is to cultivate a comments sec- stantiated hate and offence. tion that is informative, accessible, in- But how to succeed in this? Based on teresting to read, and adds value to the our conversations, we have identi!ed some journalism and to the publisher’s site as a best practices to assist news organisations whole. To achieve this, editors and manag- in their comment strategies. Further exam- ers should promote respectful dialogue and ples can be located in the key !ndings sec- conversation rather than uncivil rants and tion. insults, and allow intelligent, thoughtful

Publish guidelines for commenters

These should be clear, thorough, trans- t
Describe the kind of environment parent suggestions that enable the news the publication hopes to create and organisation to host an intelligent discus- the kind of discussions it hopes to sion and defend your moderation decisions. have Including proactive suggestions can help t
Clearly de!ne hate speech, defama- foster constructive commentary rather than tion, libel etc. merely a list of ‘don’ts.’ t
Promote opportunities for counter- Ideally, as well as expressing a zero tol- speech erance policy for hate speech and illegal t
Encourage commenters to substanti- content, guidelines should: ate their opinions with facts t
Remind commenters that they should be discussing the issue rather than attacking each other

Hire a community manager to keep on top of conversations

Hiring staff to working solely on com- An ideal solution, if resources allow, is ment threads and user generated content to appoint a community manager to ani- can be a hard sell in tough !nancial times. mate and guide conversations in addition But to effectively cultivate constructive to moderators. discussions, gather relevant input and pro- tect readers from abuse, it is necessary to allocate dedicated staff to this task rather than relying on journalists or editors who will have many other duties to ful!ll.

61 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Encourage journalists to participate in conversations (unless you have a speci!c reason for not doing so)

As described above previously, staff Journalists can both pose and answer participation is widely believed to improve questions, respond to criticism and high- the quality of discussion, and research sup- light the most interesting comments. ports this. It is also likely to get readers At De Standaard, Belgium, journalists coming back and commenting more on a pose questions to the readers for them to site: for readers who are passionate about a respond to in the comments section. “The particular news source, being able to enter questions are embedded in the article and into conversation with a particular journal- this guides the conversation if they are ist is an exciting opportunity. answering a particular question. We ask questions daily and they can respond via We also know that – we’ve done studies into Facebook, Twitter, or in the comments. it - having that staff presence early on in There’s also a whole page in the newspaper threads on our site, dramatically increases “ about it.” the tone of the conversation that follows. Many editors and managers expressed It lessens the need for moderation as well frustration at the reluctance of other staff because it sets a high barrier and also gives to get involved in comment threads, which people direction. It encourages people who seem to be frequently regarded with dis- have never commented before to take that dain by more traditional journalists. This is leap of faith” a mindset that is changing in many areas ! The Guardian, UK of the world, and it could be hastened by making a concerted effort to attract higher quality comments.

Find ways to surface most valuable comments

Ideally, a news organisation’s comments way to display the most popular comments, areas should be interesting to read even but also lets readers feel as if they have a for those who don’t comment themselves. further chance to participate in the con- To create this sort of space, it is essential to versation. Helsingin Sanomat’s approach, make sure that the most interesting com- in Finland, which allows users to not only ments are easy to !nd. say whether or not they disagree but also As well as making the good comments whether or not they believe the comment more visible, this also serves to reward and was well-argued, is particularly interesting. encourage those commenters who have Staff picks are a way to further highlight made contributions that are worth reading. the best comments but also to show com- An added bonus is that these comments menters that staff are reading and value their can then be used by journalists to add value input. It is also a chance to showcase the wide to their stories. range of opinions that readers can offer, and Letting readers like or dislike comments to show other potential commenters the kind is a good start to this: it not only enables a of contribution that the publication values.

62 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Give feedback and educate your readers

To grow and strengthen your comment- It can be done simply: ing community, give feedback to readers What we try and do is when you remove a who might not have intended to offend, comment the moderators can choose from rather than simply deleting unsuitable com- a dropdown list of reasons for why the com- ments with no information. “ ment has failed. That’s something that the News organisations report that educat- user would see.” ing does make a difference: ! BBC, UK If people have a question they can email and someone will get back to them and ex- If this is not a spam message, we explain “ plain. Part of it is educational… Sometimes, why the comment was deleted: usually ‘of- it’s people who don’t realise that it’s a legal “ fense’ or ‘swear words’.” issue or that what they were talking about ! Sloboda LLC, Russia could be deemed offensive in conjunction with that story. Most of the time people real- In the thread appears: “this comment was ize and apologise and we don’t have further rejected by the moderation team because it problems with them.” “ violated … [x guideline].” ! The Guardian, UK ! La Nación, Argentina

Or more inventively: We’ve told people very clearly to be respon- sible and not use bad language nor disre- I will ask blocked readers who come back “ spect people. You can have an argument, to me, to do a quiz on our terms and condi- a valid one, and you will be allowed to pre- “ tions. Then I know they’ve read it. If they sent your voice on that issue. I think we’ve get 100% on the quiz they can come back… succeeded in getting a lot of our readers to Before a comment is removed two people understand that. They might come back and have to find it offensive. First the reader and comment but in a much more valid manner then the moderator. So if the reader doesn’t so it’s more like educating your readers. It think it should be blocked I tell them it’s takes a long time and you have to be pa- offended two people, so maybe try reword- tient. We’ll write to them sometimes and ing it. Try and think why someone thought it explain why their comment can’t go up and was offensive and rewrite it.” then they’ll redo it sometimes and we’ll post ! Winnipeg Free Press, Canada it. We try and retrain our readers. We’ve seen our comments improve over time.” ! Gulf News, UAE

63 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Seek legal advice and share with staff

Our interviews showed a distinct lack ness around this issue in many countries but of clarity about the legal situation regard- despite this, any moderators, community ing third party content hosted on a news managers or online editors should have up- site. It may well be that, due to a lack of to-date knowledge of the situation. precedent, there is a good deal of foggi-

Other ideas worth considering:

t
Start a readers club, like Gulf News, t
Moderate the moderators: with a UAE: “For people who like to inter- moderating team, news organisa- act a lot with the paper, we have tions should ensure that there is something called Gulf News Readers regular discussion between the team Club. Highly interactive people are and superiors to check that stand- urged to join. They feel more of a ards are clear and being met. buy-in and do a lot of responsible t
Seek to protect minority opinions: commenting.” if minorities constantly feel they are t
Increase transparency by debat- being overwhelmed by the majority, ing community management, like they will stop contributing to the Der Standard, Austria: “Community conversation. If a publication moder- management is also debated in a ates actively, they can use this proce- special section of the website.” dure to ensure that minority voices t
Encourage those who complain aren’t continuously drowned out. about comments to contribute di- rectly to the discussion, like Libéra- tion, France, where politicians some- times get in touch because they want to respond to a comment: the paper encourages them to create a pro!le and answer directly.

64 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

What’s next?

We’re really ready for a more comment Comments from readers are going to be centric future. It’s democraticising, and I playing a role in the digital future of news “ think we should be held accountable, and organisations, whether they like it or not. for the journalistic excellence of our work. The ways that they are being used are con- Our readers are relentlessly energetic and stantly evolving and interesting new initia- have a very discerning eye for what are the tives are emerging. strengths and weaknesses of this content, so it makes us better journalists and our news organizations are much more plugged into the modern era.” ! The Wall Street Journal

Pinning comments to individual paragraphs

Project Syndicate allows readers to to agree with or debate speci!c points of choose to pin their comments to a speci!c an author’s opinion,” said Project Syndi- paragraph in an article so that users have cate’s founder, Nicolas Chatara-Morse. “We the ability to comment on a speci!c point, saw this as an engagement tool, but also argument or idea. A small dialogue box thought of it in academic terms, where one appears alongside each paragraph as you has to defend certain points in his or her scroll down an article, prompting readers to thesis.” comment. When a comment is made relat- “What is the purpose of comments, gen- ing to a particular paragraph, a pin appears erally?” Chatara-Morse continued. “I see beside that paragraph and readers can click it as the reader’s (or user’s) chance to con- on that to read those comments. tribute his or her voice, opinion or ideas to “The content we produce is exclusively the discussion that evolves from a piece of opinion and commentary so each article content. We have given our readers a tool is making an argument or point on an is- to focus his/her voice on a speci!c point of sue. We liked the idea of allowing users that discussion.” Projectcomment Syndicate’s system comments users allows ‘pin’ to

65 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

A similar process has been adopted by and Medium calls its version Notes. “The Atlantic Media’s digital business news out- goal is to encourage more thoughtful and let Quartz and Twitter’s blogging platform directed conversation,” Quartz senior edi- Medium. Quartz calls its reader contribu- tor Zach Seward told Nieman Lab1. tions ‘annotations’ rather than comments,

Wider, focused discussions around speci!c issues

One of the problems with just allowing The results were displayed in the form comments on individual articles is that you of a Venn diagram, with comments below might have many different articles on a big in a grid that showed which statements topic, and thus the discussion will be frag- each had picked. This served to tell its own mented. story, showing the views of more than a The Washington Post. US, has been ad- thousand readers and correlations between dressing this, along with the fact that, as their varying opinions. Cory Haik, the paper’s executive producer It was a “huge team effort” across the and senior editor for digital news, said: newsroom, Haik said, involving the audi- “What you get is a lot of volume of conver- ence development team and interactive sation on stories - things that are hot issues graphics department as well as the report- - but you don’t always get that meaningful ers and editors who were covering the response that you are looking for.” story. But there is potential to ‘templatise’ After the US Supreme Court’s ruling such an app so that it could be more easily that it was illegal to prevent gay couples adapted for different issues, Haik said. from marrying, the paper decided to tackle Without some form of ‘templatisation,’ UGC on this issue in a different way, creat- creating such apps would be a challenge ing an interactive app that asked readers to for smaller news organisations. But !nding choose a variety of statements to explain different, visually-attractive ways to display how this decision affected them. comments gives them the chance to truly It was important, Haik said, to “offer shine in a digital publication. a way for folks to respond in a meaning- ful way – we were looking to understand where our readership was, we were genu- inely interested.” The app was packaged with every story on the groundbreaking decision.

1 http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/08/exegesis-how-early-adapters-innovative-publishers-legacy- media-companies-and-more-are-pushing-toward-the-annotated-web/

66 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation The Washington PostThe Washington app

67 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Bringing comments up beside the story

Comments have traditionally lived from disease. A few paragraphs in, a quote below the article, sometimes only visible from the reporter, Amy Harmon (accom- when deliberately expanded: they are an panied by her picture), invites readers to, addition to rather than a part of the story. “share your perspective on the issues raised The New York Times has started to change in my article. What are the main considera- this: in a prototype of a redesigned article tions that inform your opinion on geneti- page that was released in March 2013 but cally modi!ed foods?” has yet to be implemented, comments are These ‘reader perspectives’ are then shown alongside the article rather than displayed at several points throughout the below it. story, offering a carefully-chosen range of For some stories, comments have been viewpoints. given an even higher status, brought into As well as providing a clear signal to the body of the story as pullout quotes. As readers that their comments are highly val- noted by Journalism.co.uk1, the !rst arti- ued, reader input on a divisive issue such as cle to experiment with this was a story on genetically-modi!ed foods can be a fasci- altering the DNA of oranges to save them nating complement to a story. The New York Times hasplaced reader perspectives storyThe the NewYork of " ow main the within

1 http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/new-york-times-elevates-comments-from-below-the-line/s2/ a553677/

68 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Live chats

Several news outlets operate live chats tips for stories. Unlike the requirements for with reporters, editors and others, some- leaving comments, users can participate times in addition to, sometimes as an alter- without an email address. native to comments. These might be regu- At Le Monde, France, comment sections lar appointments with a speci!c reporter, are seen as a space for readers to express or on important issues as they arise. themselves and journalists do not get in- The Seattle Times, US, hosts live chats volved: live chats, led by journalists are the with experts and reporters on speci!c is- key way that the staff participate in discus- sues, the editor said. “We can weed out sions with their readers. bad questions that way, it can be an alter- At news outlets where journalists strug- native to comment.” gle to !nd the time to regularly interact Norran, Sweden, operates a continuous with readers via comment sections, a live chat on its home page with a web edi- scheduled live chat can be a good way for tor, offering readers the chance to directly readers to feel as if they have the chance to ask questions about coverage, and provide truly interact. Norran’s live chat window chat live Norran’s

69 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Reactions as well as comments

Providing the option to click a button to a shaking head badge to note that a com- express a particular emotion about an arti- ment is not seen as appropriate, discourag- cle allows readers to react to a story with- ing other readers from responding. A gold out necessarily putting effort into compos- star on a post, meanwhile, means that a ing their own comment. It has the potential Buzzfeed editor thought it was interesting to both encourage more overall reactions or useful. to an article, while eliminating some of the These buttons and badges are clearly less thoughtful comments. suited to Buzzfeed’s type of content, but a Buzzfeed, US, provides buttons such as more traditional news organization could ‘heart,’ ‘OMG,’ ‘WTF,’ ‘LOL,’ ‘cute,’ ‘win,’ or adapt the idea accordingly: it provides a ‘fail,’ to allow its readers to easily react to straightforward way for readers to interact an article. with articles and for editors to interact with As described earlier, editors can react to readers. comments, giving them ‘badges,’ such as Buzzfeed’sContributions section

70 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Conclusion

As journalism increasingly tends towards Getting to the point where you can becoming a dialogue between reporters make best use of online comments also and readers, online comments and other requires investment in resources and intel- reader input will only become more impor- ligence, which is particularly challenging at tant. The challenges they pose are not go- a time when many news outlets are strug- ing to go away, but they can be addressed, gling to establish sustainable digital busi- and the potential of comments to make nesses. More effective automated !lters a positive contribution to a news outlet is will undoubtedly be developed, but there considerable. will continue to be a need for human input Broadly, news outlets are moving in the moderation process and consequent- through three stages in their approach to ly for well-trained moderators and commu- tackling online comments. The !rst chal- nity managers. lenge is how to avoid offensive content The bene!ts that many see from com- appearing on your publication, and this ments – from feedback and ideas for sto- was clearly a !rst priority for those we in- ries, to genuine loyalty and trust that leads terviewed. The editors and managers we to more visits and time on site – are signi!- spoke to were clear that they believe news cant and increasingly important for news organisations need to maintain signi!cant organisations in times of tough digital com- control over the content on their sites, and petition. it is important that they are con!dent in Predictably, in many cases it is the big, the methods they establish to manage user well known organisations that are leading contributions. innovation in comments. But smaller news Once a news outlet has found a strategy organisations can learn from these and to deal with this, they can move on to look- take the results of the experiments that suit ing at how to cultivate a robust, construc- them. tive dialogue on their sites that is a draw in itself, and then !nally focus on how to make comments a truly valuable, integrat- ed element of their publication. Some have already embraced their read- ers’ input with open arms, but for many, a change in mindset from seeing online comments as a burden to seeing them as an opportunity is an essential step to mak- ing them actually useful. It isn’t just the moderators who need to see the potential in commenting, but the editorial team as a whole.

71 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Image © sxc.hu | Jakub Krechowicz

72 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Who we interviewed

We spoke to staff at 104 news organisations across 63 countries. Depending on the size of the operation, those in charge of online comment moderation included online editors, com- munity managers, social media editors and more. On some occasions we spoke to the editor- in-chief as the person with !nal oversight.

For the sake of simplicity we have generally credited quotations to the publication itself: for the speci!c staff member please see the list below.

Country News organisation Staff member Title

Albania Panorama Online Bruna Prifti Online editor

Argentina La Nacion Rodrigo Santos Social media and community editor

Australia The Age Daniel Sankey Online editor

Austria Der Standard Christian Burger Community editor at derStandard.at

Vorarlberg Online Marc Springer Editor-in-chief

Belgium De Standaard Lies Lecomte Site manager

Botswana Botswana Guardian Justice Kavahematui Reporter and Midweek Sun

Brazil Folha de Sao Paulo Roberto Prata Assistant managing editor de Lima Dias

O Globo Pedro Doria Executive editor

Zero Hora Barbara Nickel Online editor

Bulgaria Capital Weekly Joana Markova Social media and online community manager

Cambodia The Phnom Penh Post David Boyle Managing editor

Canada Winnipeg Free Press Wendy Sawatzky Associate editor for digital news

Chile El Mercurio Gonzalo Vega Sfrasani Sub-editor, opinion and internet

Colombia La Silla Vacia Juanita Leon Founder and editor-in-chief

El Espectador/ICCK Diego Carvajal Head of online portal

Croatia 24sata Bojan Rodik Community manager

Czech Republic iDNES Tomas Ventura Deputy editor

Project Syndicate Nicolas Chatara-Morse CEO

Project Syndicate Lola Boatwright Global relations manager

73 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Country News organisation Staff member Title

Denmark Politiken Christian Lindhardt Managing editor for politiken.dk

Kristeligt Dagblad Maria Lyskjær Social media manager Mansfeldt

Jyllands-Posten Tine Tholander Community manager

Egypt Al Ahram Ahmed Feteha Business editor

Estonia AS Eesti Ajalehed Allan Sombri Head of content development department

Finland Helsingin Sanomat Paula Salovaara Managing editor

Kaleva Markku Mantila Editor-in-chief

France Libération Olivier Costemalle Deputy editor-in- chief for online

Le Monde Julien Laroche-Joubert Head of innovation

Le Monde Morgiane Achache Digital project leader

Germany Süddeutsche Zeitung Stefan Plöchinger Online editor-in-chief

Berliner Morgenpost Sonja Haase Online editor

Die Welt Holger Melas Commissioning editor

Die Zeit Sebastian Horn Community & social media editor

Greece Kathimerini Nikos Konstandaras Managing editor

India Mint Sundeep Khanna Executive editor

The Times of India Rajesh Kalra Chief editor of the Times online

DNA Mahafreed Irani Online editor

Indonesia Jakarta Post Riyadi Suparno Vice executive director

Israel Haaretz Lior Kodner Head of digital

Italy La Stampa Anna Masera Social media editor

La Repubblica Alessio Balbi Editor

Corriere della Sera Paolo Rastelli Online editor

Jordan Al-Ghad Mo’taz Fouqaha Multimedia and social media supervisor

Kenya The Star Dickens Olewe Web administrator and journalist

The Nation Collins Nabiswa Social media editor

Lebanon An Nahar Ayad Wakim Project coordinator

Al-Akhbar English Jamal Ghosn Managing editor

74 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Country News organisation Staff member Title

Lebanon NOW Michel Farha Of!ce coordinator

Malaysia The Star Philip S. Golingai Online editor

Mexico El Siglo de Torréon Javier Garza Deputy editorial director

Animal Politico Adrian Saravia Head of design and production

Morocco Lakome Ali Anouzla Online director

Myanmar Myanmar Times Ross Dunkely Founder/owner

The Irrawaddy Aung Zaw Founder and editor

Namibia The Namibian Johnathan Beukes head of online division

The Netherlands Volkskrant Laurens Verhagen Editor-in-chief volksrant.nl

New Zealand The New Zealand Cathy O’Sullivan Online editor Herald

Nigeria The Nation Lekan Otufodunrin Online editor

Norway Bergens Tidene Hilde Sandvik Culture editor

Faedrelandsvennen Malin Schulze Head of social media

Oman The Times of Oman Moign Khawaja Web editor

Pakistan Dawn Zaffar Abbas Editor

The Express Tribune Jahanzaib Haque Web editor

Peru El Comercio Maricella Arias Deputy manager of digital content

Philippines The Philippine Abelardo S. Ulanday Associate editor for online Daily Inquirer

Poland Gazeta Wyborcza Mateusz Szaniewski Social media manager

Portugal Pùblico Hugo Torres Online community manager

Russia Sloboda LLC Kseniia Gribkova Web editor

MOE! Vladimir Mazenko Editor-in-chief

Serbia Južne vesti Vitomir Ognjanovic Owner

Južne vesti Predrag Blagojevic Editor-in-chief

Blic Marko Stjepanovic Deputy editor-in-chief of integrated newsroom and executive editor for online

Radio Television Serbia Rade Maroevic Online editor

Singapore The Straits Times Eugene Leow Online editor

Slovakia SME Filip Struhárik Editor, online discussions

75 Online comment moderation: challenges and opportunities

Country News organisation Staff member Title

South Africa Business Day Riaan Wolmarans Executive editor for digital at BDlive and Business Day

South Africa The Mail & Guardian Adrian Ephraim Online news editor

News 24 Jannie Momberg Editor-in-chief

City Press Liesl Pretorius Digital editor

Spain Vilaweb Vicent Partal Founder and director

Sri Lanka Groundviews Sanjana Hattotuwa Founder

Sweden Norran Jessica Dhyr Web editor, journalist

Switzerland La Tribune de Genève David Haeberli Head of online

Taiwan Apple Daily Daisy Li Animation news director

Thailand Thairath Chavarong Chief of information centre Limpattamapanee

Prachatai Chiranuch Editor-in-chief Premchaiporn

Turkey Hurriyet Cihan Celik News editor of Hurriyet Daily News

Dogan Group Çarı Türkkorur Digital media director (Posta + Fanatik)

UAE Gulf News Anupa Kurian Head of Readers’ Desk

Uganda The Daily Monitor Raymond Mpubani Online sub-editor

UK The Economist Mark Johnson Community editor

Reuters Margarita Noriega Community editor

The Guardian Laura Oliver Community manager

The Times Ben Whitelaw Communities editor

BBC Trushar Barot Assistant editor, BBC News’ UGC and social media hub

Uruguay El Observador Carina Novarese Head of digital

76 A guide to promoting robust and civil online conversation

Country News organisation Staff member Title

US The Wall Street Demetria Gagellos Community editor Journal

The Seattle Times Bob Payne Editor, partnerships & audience engagement

Buzzfeed Lili Salzberg Community moderator

Dallas Morning News Carmen Cano General manager, digital & innovation

Dallas Morning News Michael Landauer Digital communities manager

The Denver Post Dan Petty Social media and engagement editor

USA The New York Times Bassey Etim Community manager

Gawker Media Lauren Bertolini Community development Network manager

Vietnam VietnamPlus, Vietnam Le Quoc Minh Editor-in-chief News Agency

Yemen Yemen Portal Waleed Al-Saqaf Founder/administrator

Zambia The Post Bivan Saluseki Managing editor

We also spoke to: t
Keith Bilous, CEO, ICUC t
Ro Gupta, VP business development, Disqus t
Cory Haik, Executive Producer and Senior Editor of Digital News, Washington Post t
Gary Kebbel, Director of Center for Mobile Media, University of Nebraska-Lincoln t
Jéremie Mani, CEO, Netino t
Andrew McDiarmid, Senior Policy Analyst, Center for Democracy and Technology t
Tamara Middleton, CEO, eModeration t
Natalie Jomnini Stroud, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Studies and Assistant Director, Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life, University of Texas at Austin

77 Join the World Editors Forum

The World Editors Forum is the network for editors within the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

WAN-IFRA’s members are located in over 120 countries and have a combined reach of more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and 3,000 companies.

This vast network allows us to connect and support editors and newsroom executives across the globe as they navigate the journalistic and publishing challenges of the digital age.

The World Editors Forum’s activities are under- pinned by three core values. These are a commitment to editorial excellence and ethical journalism and an unyielding belief in press freedom.

For the past 20 years the World Editors Forum has proved its value as a supportive partner to editors: providing information and intelligence from daily news on our blog (www. editorsweblog.org) to in-depth reports such as this study. Key to our success is our ability to connect editors around the issues that matter - from digital transformation and its effect on newsrooms to disruptive competition. We help editors anticipate changing reader habits and manage ever-smaller budgets so they can focus on their wider, vital role in society.

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To join our network go to www.wan-ifra.org/microsites/membership © WAN-IFRA, World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers

September 2013

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