Month: July 2016

Twitter has spent much of its life promoting itself as a haven for free speech—the “free-speech wing of the free-speech party,” as a number of senior executives have described it. But that commitment is proving to be a lot more complicated than Twitter probably hoped it would be, as it tries to figure out how to cope with systemic harassment and abuse.

The latest flashpoint in this ongoing battle came on Tuesday, when the account of notorious troll Milo Yiannopolous—also known as Nero—was permanently banned by Twitter, following a torrent of racist and sexist abuse directed at comedian Leslie Jones that she says has forced her to leave the service completely.

Somewhere in between those two sentences is the line that Twitter is trying to find, and is being forced to draw: When does expressing an opinion, or engaging in an argument or debate, turn into orchestrated or targeted abuse and harassment?

At the heart of the problem is the fact that Twitter has spent so much time touting itself as a protecter and defender of free speech, unlike other more restrictive platforms such as Facebook (FB). Co-founder and former CEO (and current board member) Evan Williams and others have written a number of times about how “the tweets must flow” in response to demands for censorship from various governments.

Note: This was originally published at Fortune, where I was a senior writer from 2015 to 2017

Continue reading “Twitter tries to find a balance between promoting free speech and curbing abuse”

Gawker Media founder Nick Denton has a lot of things on his mind right now, not the least of which is the future of his company as it goes through a court-ordered bankruptcy auction—a process sparked by a $140-million court award in the Hulk Hogan case for publishing a sex video.

But that’s not what Denton wants to talk about this morning. After a recent piece written by the New York Times‘ new public editor on the value of reader engagement, he wants to talk about why he sees a future in allowing reader comments when almost every other media organization seems to have given up on them or is at least thinking about doing so.

Is the enigmatic multimillionaire looking for a distraction from the events of the past few months? Perhaps. But interaction with readers is also something that he fervently believes in, and you can tell that not just by what he says, but the fact that Gawker has spent significant amounts of money on it. The company has even integrated its comments into the stories it distributes through Facebook’s Instant Articles service.

Long before the Hogan trial took center stage, Gawker Media invested millions (Denton won’t say how much exactly) in building a commenting and reader-blogging system it called Kinja, which Denton described as nothing less than an attempt to turn the publishing world on its head—to put readers on the same level with journalists and publishers. As he put it at the time:

Note: This was originally published at Fortune, where I was a senior writer from 2015 to 2017

Continue reading “Nick Denton says giving up on reader comments is a big mistake”

The new public editor at the New York Times has only been in that position for about a month, and already a media mob seems to be gathering with pitchforks and torches. And what is Elizabeth Spayd’s heinous transgression? Did she admit that the Times doesn’t care about poor people, or that the Iraq War was justified? No, she defended the value of engaging with readers, and specifically reader comments.

In case you haven’t been following this topic over the past little while, it has become so contentious that it approaches “third rail” status in some media circles. Even mentioning it can spark heated debates and get you criticized and/or unfollowed by prominent figures in the industry (and I speak from experience).

Spayd’s column, entitled “Want to Attract More Readers? Try Listening to Them,” drew a stinging rebuke from former New Republic executive editor Isaac Chotiner at Slate, who wrote a response in which he called it “terrible advice for the paper.” USA Today media critic Michael Wolff said on Twitter that the column was “drivel,” and MIT Technology Review editor Jason Pontin called it “disastrous.”

Note: This was originally published at Fortune, where I was a senior writer from 2015 to 2017

Continue reading “The NYT’s new public editor is right about comments, and here’s why”

There have been plenty of newsworthy incidents in the past that were caught on video by a bystander and streamed live on a social network or through an app. But it’s hard to remember a week like this one, with so many terrible reminders that we live in an era of always-on, real-time media—and just how chaotic and complicated and disturbing that can be.

The upside of a world in which everyone has a camera, and can perform essentially the same function as a journalist, is that we can see events unfolding in an uncensored and unfiltered way. That can bring with it a kind of horrible truth, but it can also create a fog of uncertainty.

What responsibilities do these companies have as the new gatekeepers for news? And what responsibility, if any, do we have as users when it comes to sharing that content?

The week began with the death of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man who was shot multiple times by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as he lay on the ground outside a convenience store. Police described it as a reasonable use of force, but videos shot by witnesses painted a very different picture of a man already subdued, with no gun in sight.

Note: This was originally published at Fortune, where I was a senior writer from 2015 to 2017

Continue reading “Facebook Live and Twitter make us all eyewitnesses now”