Racist Hate Speech / Anonymous Comments

[pander75]

Aloha Punaweb,

This weekend I was involved in a discussion on the Hawaii Tribune Herald website. In the comments area of one of their articles (http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/fed...ecognition) a person by the name of "John" started saying some vary racist, hateful and offensive remarks. To the extent that local Hawaiian people are all lazy, mongrels and do nothing but take their welfare handouts. When I called him out for having a lack of compassion he responded with more hate. I wonder what their advertisers like KTA, Day-Lum Real Estate, and Hawaii Electric feel about having their ads on the same page as this?

This got me thinking... because I know this kind of online trolling and ugly words are an issue in many different media outlets - including Punaweb... how do we stop this kind of behavior? The solution that many of the big sites have hit on is to not allow people to post comments anonymously. Facebook, YouTube, Huffington Post and even Fox News now insist that you sign in with some kind of verified profile. Funny to think, but when people have to use their real name they don't say such hateful things! Imagine?!

So... since this is still an anonymous forum that many post opinions on, I wonder what you folks think? I personally love to read the forums here, but have definitely been turned off at times by people becoming offensive.

i'm cutting and pasting my exchange from the Hawaii Tribune Herald website below. At least 2 of John's comments have already been removed for racist language, but here is what is still posted more than 48 hours later.

While I will admit that I was a bit snarky at times, how do you feel about this? Was I in the wrong for calling him out? Do we really want to permit racist hate speech in our news media? I would love to get some feedback here...

[ pasting of content from the Tribune-Herald has been removed until I can determine the copyright status of the material - Moderator]

[Rob Tucker]

For my part I am not interested in bringing raggedy content from another site to Punaweb and prefer that the subject be discussed in abstract insofar as your Tribune Herald experiences go.

As for Punaweb my intention has always been to have this forum be as much a reflection, for good or bad, of puna as it can be - within limits.

As moderator I don't have time to read every post of every topic. Sometimes people are offensive and sometimes people are too easily offended.

Sometimes I think people might be drunk or stoned as they write.... I can't tell. But if people or rude behavior become egregiously offensive or repetitive on someone's part I will try to rein it in. I do that by suggesting or asking. When that fails I will suspend someone. If that fails I will ban them.

When pissing contests break out I have little interest in playing detective and trying to figure out who started it. Like an elementary school hall monitor when I see a fight going on I will first evaluate how far it is going or might go. Then I will slap the side of the head of whoever appears convenient. It takes two to tango. If I shut down one then perhaps the others will get the hint. You all are supposed to be adults.

I admit this is an imperfect system and it will most always result in someone's nose getting out of joint. Personally I don't care that much. My focus is on the viability of a community forum. I am not the ACLU here to defend anyone's rights or honor.

Kinda sums it up for me.



Assume the best and ask questions.

Punaweb moderator

[pander75]

Aloha Rob,

Hi there... thanks for your input! A big part of my issue is specific for the Hawaii Tribune Herald / Stephens Media, but the meta issue corresponds to many media sites, including Punaweb and other local blogs. This is something that a lot of media sites are grappling with. The Punaweb forums are great, and I have definitely enjoyed reading our communities ideas and thoughts... but there is this dark energy, a base nature of people wanting to say things that they would never say if they were identified or if it was to another person's face. Maybe there are times when anonymous can be good, but most of the time we see that it is destructive and ugly. Sort of cowardly bullying.

Bigger question is what can we do about it? How do we make these places online safe for all opinions, but call out hate and racism when they appear?

[Rob Tucker]

The basic simple rule of internet posting is: Do Not Feed The Trolls.

Assume the best and ask questions.

Punaweb moderator

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

quote:

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Originally posted by Rob Tucker

Sometimes I think people might be drunk or stoned as they write.... I can't tell.

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I agree. And if that is the case, better an offensive drunk/stoned troll posting on a website, than a drunk/stoned driver on the highway causing some real trouble.

[Lee M-S]

Some forums have a mechanism to block the posts of people you don't like. Any chance PunaWeb can be set up to do that?

Imagine a forum where everyone agrees with me--or with you, or whoever is hitting the "block" button. All those rainbows and unicorns...


><(((*> ~~~~ ><(("> ~~~~ ><'> ~~~~ >(>

[terracore]

"how do we stop this kind of behavior?"

"Do we really want to permit racist hate speech in our news media?"

It's not "our" news media, each media outlet has their own agenda, and they've already taken you for a ride. Revenue-generating web sites live for the per-click conversions. How many times did you click over to that discussion to go back-and-forth with your "opponent"? How much more hatred did he or her spew while responding to your posts?

Why would they want to dissuade guaranteed return web traffic?

The media lives off of controversy.

"When I called him out for having a lack of compassion he responded with more hate".

Stop being his/her tool.

"The solution that many of the big sites have hit on is to not allow people to post comments anonymously." If anonymous, why then do you refer to the poster as "him". Maybe its a woman. If its an anonymous post, you don't know the sex of the poster. If I were a troll, I could quickly degrade this conversation down to a rant about you being sexist. See how quickly that works?

Rob was right, do not feed the trolls.

[Guest]

You can not stop hatred or racism. You can only not participate.

"BE the change you want to see in the world" - Ghandi

[Midnight Rambler]

quote:

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Originally posted by pander75

Aloha Punaweb,

This weekend I was involved in a discussion on the Hawaii Tribune Herald website. In the comments area of one of their articles (http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/fed...ecognition) a person by the name of "John" started saying some vary racist, hateful and offensive remarks.

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TBH, as one who as been in many comment threads like that, "John" is comparatively mild for that kind of troll. Look on the comments for the Yahoo news feed or Fox, especially anything about Obama, and you'll see vastly worse. And online outlets aren't under much obligation to police comments made by others on their site.

[kimo wires]

or read rants and raves on craigslist to be really discussed with the anonymous-racist trolls hiding behind their computers or iPhones with made up handles. It's like a screaming baby on an airplane. You want to shout SHUT UP ! But you just ignore it as best you can.