ONLINE TITLES MOVE TO CENSOR BLABBERMOUTHS

12/04/2010

It’s official; the old cliché ‘freedom isn’t free’ has taken on a whole new perverse meaning for Web 2.0 activists the world over.  And the culprit you ask?  The very purveyors of first amendment third world freedoms have moved to not only implement subscription-only comment pages in order to name and shame anonymous offenders but also to charge the customers for the privilege.  Whereas Alan Rusbridger’s dream of press and public conciliation hangs in the balance, Nick Robinson can breathe a hefty sigh of relief.  Google, the stage is yours.  All jests aside, is the introduction of comment mediation on major news sites a good idea?  Will it create a more collegial atmosphere of proper civic discourse?  Or should the media, with its insistence that free speech trumps privacy, practice what it preaches?

For more on the debate, visit News Sites Rethink Anonymous Online Comments.