Comments and freedom of speech

I’d like to talk to you about something that’s been on my mind concerning the handling of blog comments. Let me be more specific: regrettably, I have not published all the comments received on my posts, (for example on the last G8 Summit) for the simple reason that certain respondents attacked me personally or attacked CTA in a gratuitous manner that I find unacceptable and unconstructive. This is discouraging and contrary to the spirit of blogging I am engaged in which I feel should lead to dialogue and the free exchange of views in a mature fashion.

Of course this is not to say that I will not publish points of view which differ from mine. Freedom of speech, rare and precious, is a wonderful thing. The possibility to have other people communicating with you when you are blogging is tremendous. But as with all good things, moderation is a must.

A good example of abuse suffered is Kathy Sierra who received, among other things, death threats on her blog. Increasingly, bloggers are becoming victims of "cyber bullying" and harassment. To counter these worrying trends, Tim O'Reilly (who invented the term "Web2" see one of my previous posts) and Jimmy Wales have therefore suggested a "Bloggers Code of Conduct".

Roughly, this code lays down the following guidelines:

• Take responsibility not just for your own words, but for the comments you allow on your blog;
• Label your tolerance level for abusive comments;
• Don't say anything online that you wouldn't say in person;
• Take the conversation offline, and talk directly, or find an intermediary who can do so;
• Consider eliminating anonymous comments;
• Ignore the trolls;
• If you know someone who is behaving badly, tell them so.

This has caused a stir among those who say it restricts the freedom of speech. I’m not entirely convinced by this argument but nevertheless I invite you to go to the wiki created on the topic in order to participate in the whole debate.

For me, the key issue is item number one of the guidelines: that of responsibility for what is written. Of course, one could leave the comments unmoderated which would inevitably lead to spam, anonymous postings and would leave the blog wide open to abuse by “trolls”. None of this would be edifying for you the reader. Mutual respect is therefore crucial to me in identifying comments to publish. So, keep your ideas and opinions coming so that we can pursue our discussions in a positive way. And please, no trolls.

Stay tuned!