THE trolls have won.
News24 announced today that, as of Friday, readers will no longer be able to comment on stories.
For me, the comments on most (especially News24) articles have long been a source of delicious entertainment.
There are so many people with too much time on their hands, scrolling through hundreds of comments until they see something that grinds their gears to no end.
Until, inevitably, the need to respond becomes overwhelming.
And so a debate starts, the debate turns into insults, insults turn into threats.
And this all occurs between people who have (mostly) never even met.
This folks, is called social-media rubbernecking.
Like in real life, as drivers come up on an accident scene, they slow…take in the carnage…have their bit to say…and mozy on down the way.
Hacking away at their keyboards, fingers dancing with a fiery vitriolic akin to handing a drunk politician a megaphone, we have seen time and time again.
Oh, peer yonder fair browser of the news, and see how the debate spirals into the deep, dark and worrisome corners of the voting registry, coming to an abrupt halt at the sign that reads ‘lawsuit’.
Barely.
But what has spurred this decision on so suddenly?
According to an article written by News24 editor-in-chief Andrew Trench, which subsequently became the most commented story of the day, ‘comments tediously drift towards hate speech at worst and, at best, are often laced with prejudice.’
Any sojourn into the comments section of a popular website can teach you this.
News24 is spinning it into a positive, by making an option available for you to have your say…if you don’t mind going through a little effort.
Honestly, I can understand that it was a full-time job monitoring the masses of comments, sifting through endless streams of ill-mannered mulch.
But are they effectively shutting the door in the bewildered faces of thousands of readers?
I think so.
One can never give someone a voice, and then take it away.
The top comment on the article by Trench speaks volumes: ‘Silencing the voices of ordinary people. One step even closer towards dictatorship.’
I am sure we can expect a pay-gate next.
