Posts Tagged: trolling

This week I thought I’d answer one of Charlotte’s questions: Look at any newspaper website and you can see that trolling is an issue in the comments section. Lanier believes that the design is mostly to blame. On many sites you have to sign up in order to leave comments, but with the ease of making a new email address and leaving a fake name it is easy to become anonymous. How do we design these sites better so that there is interactions between users but not the constant lack of respect that takes place online?

I think this is a really interesting question that calls into play a lot of issues surrounding user privacy and how we can best utilize the Internet for public good, rather than harm. Currently, it’s simple for users to create fake email accounts, names and ways of identifying themselves for sites that require some sort of log-in in order to comment; however, many sites still allow anonymous, free-flowing comments where user identification is not required at all. I agree in part with Lanier that it is website interfaces and designs that make anonymity effortless and thus encourage and promote trolling, however, as we continue down the path of interactivity, new methods must be put into place in order to protect all users and direct conversations into meaningful areas. I don’t think “directing” a conversation can be considered censorship if the goal of doing this is to simply eliminate unhelpful, unnecessary or abusive comments. However, where the issue becomes tricky is HOW to best direct conversations. Right now a lot of websites have someone who monitors comments and deletes any that are inappropriate. Some websites also have software that flags comments that use specific words (like swears) for review. These are all good steps in the right direction, however, there needs to be more. Maybe one solution is not necessarily changing the website design to require all users to identify themselves, but to have a way to track comments back to users and be able to hold them accountable. This way users who want to comment anonymously can continue to do so and keep a certain level of privacy, but also know they will be held accountable if their comments are inappropriate or harmful.

I think as we continue to explore this issue a lot of new ideas and innovations will begin to pop up as to how to best “track” users and continue to improve everyone’s web experience. However, we must be cautious that we do not stifle people’s voices or censor them in a way that might devalue the interactive experience.