While there aren’t necessarily significant legal issues associated with this topic, we thought it worthy of comment given the interesting policy and business issues raised as companies continue to look for the most effective way to utilize social media. It is often difficult to find a comfortable balance between encouraging candor in online postings versus requiring users to take responsibility for their comments. Allow anonymous postings, and risk creating a climate for offensive and hateful comments. Require users to register with their real names, however, and risk discouraging posting altogether. As posts become more and more prolific, however, many websites have increasingly opted for the latter tradeoff, with mixed results.
For example, the Buffalo News recently implemented a policy requiring commenters to provide their real names and hometowns, in order to combat racist responses to news stories. This move follows that of the Attleboro, Massachusetts, Sun Chronicle, which requires commenters to register with names, addresses, phone numbers, and credit cards, and to pay a one-time fee of ninety-nine cents.
Blizzard Entertainment, the producer of the popular online games World of Warcraft and Starcraft II, has also struggled with policing its forums. Although originally scheduled to introduce on July 27 a “RealID” framework that would require forum posters to display their real names, Blizzard dropped the proposal when gamers revolted at the idea of foregoing anonymity. (A World of Warcraft forum thread discussing the change spanned over 2,000 pages with over 40,000 replies).
Well-advised online forum providers will search for a solution in between total anonymity and full disclosure of personal information. Too harsh a policy may totally hinder the online discussion: in the weeks following the Sun Chronicle’s move to its registration system, only twenty-two people have registered to comment. One promising, less extreme technique is to allow the forum to police itself, which may include promoting and demoting comments based on user voting. However, such a system risks demoting comments which are not offensive bur rather simply unpopular. Also, systems for ranking commenters can help create incentives for reputation-building. Some sites also reserve the right to block offensive postings. Ultimately, devising an effective comment-filtering mechanism is crucial to fostering a productive online community.
- Randy Shaheen and Andrew Macurdy
