CNET: Instagram now lets everyone pin comments on posts. “Instagram is expanding its pinned comments feature to everyone, after testing the tool with a select group of users in May. The social media giant said the feature aims to help Instagrammers manage the conversations being had in the comment section of their posts.”
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CNET: Byte has a bot problem after just two days
CNET: Byte has a bot problem after just two days. “Byte, the 6-second video app meant to fill the Vine-shaped hole in our hearts, reportedly has a bot problem just days after its release. The app was released on Friday for iPhone and Android, but users quickly returned with complaints about multiple bot-generated spam comments being left on their posts, according to a Sunday blog post from co-founder Dom Hoffman.”
A Good Place: The Only Good Comments Section On The Internet (The Outline)
The Outline: A Good Place: The Only Good Comments Section On The Internet. “No matter where the comments live these days, it’s almost impossible to find a comments section where the unsolicited opinions that live there are actually positive, let alone helpful. Unless we’re talking about the comments on NYT Cooking, a digital collection of recipes from The New York Times.”
BuzzFeed News: Political Operatives Are Faking Voter Outrage With Millions Of Made-Up Comments To Benefit The Rich And Powerful
BuzzFeed News: Political Operatives Are Faking Voter Outrage With Millions Of Made-Up Comments To Benefit The Rich And Powerful. “A BuzzFeed News investigation — based on an analysis of millions of comments, along with court records, business filings, and interviews with dozens of people — offers a window into how a crucial democratic process was skewed by one of the most prolific uses of political impersonation in US history. In a key part of the puzzle, two little-known firms, Media Bridge and LCX Digital, working on behalf of industry group Broadband for America, misappropriated names and personal information as part of a bid to submit more than 1.5 million statements favorable to their cause.”
TechCrunch: YouTube tests profile cards that show users’ comment history
TechCrunch: YouTube tests profile cards that show users’ comment history. “YouTube commenters will now have their channel loyalty — or their tendency to troll — exposed, thanks to a new feature called profile cards, now in testing. Recently announced by way of YouTube’s Creator Insider channel, where the company shares updates and changes with its creator community, these new profile cards would appear whenever you clicked on a commenter’s name, and would list all their other recent comments on the channel.”
CNET: YouTube vowed to halt comments on videos with young kids. It hasn’t
CNET: YouTube vowed to halt comments on videos with young kids. It hasn’t . “Comment-enabled videos prominently depicting young kids are still easy to find on YouTube. A single YouTube search for one kids-focused subject — ‘pretend play’ — returned more than 100 videos with comments enabled, all prominently featuring infants, preschoolers and other children young enough to still have their baby teeth. After CNET contacted YouTube with a list of these videos, comments were disabled on nearly half of them.”
Harper’s Bazaar: Instagram rolls out an anti-bullying tool to help trolls question nasty comments
Harper’s Bazaar: Instagram rolls out an anti-bullying tool to help trolls question nasty comments. “Instagram has implemented a new tool to help eradicate bullying by making trolls question any prospective nasty comments.”
Gizmodo: Australian Court Rules Media Orgs Are Liable for Defamation Posted to Facebook by Random Users
Gizmodo: Australian Court Rules Media Orgs Are Liable for Defamation Posted to Facebook by Random Users. “An Australian Court has ruled that media organizations are liable for anything defamatory that’s published to the public Facebook pages of those media companies, even if it’s just posted by a random Facebook user.”
CNET: YouTube comments hidden by default in new test by the video site
CNET: YouTube comments hidden by default in new test by the video site. “YouTube’s comments section can be a mix between no man’s land in a war zone and the Wild West. Translation: The place can be dangerous. So instead of making you read what the New Statesman called ‘the worst of the internet,’ YouTube is working on a new feature that would hide comments by default.”
Ubergizmo: Facebook Wants To Make Public Comments Feel More Meaningful
Ubergizmo: Facebook Wants To Make Public Comments Feel More Meaningful. “If you’ve ever gone through the comments on a public Facebook post, it can sometimes feel like it is the perfect example of everything wrong about the internet and social media these days. This is why Facebook has recently announced an initiative in which they are hoping that they can make public comments feel more meaningful.”
Lifehacker: Block Comments on the Web With This Chrome Extension
Lifehacker: Block Comments on the Web With This Chrome Extension. “Sometimes the comment section can be great. Commenting allows you to chat with others who have read the same article about your thoughts, engage in friendly debate, and potentially learn something new. Other times, the comment section can be difficult to read and can do more harm than good. For those times, there’s the Chrome extension Shut Up.”
Engadget: Killing comments won’t cure our toxic internet culture
Engadget: Killing comments won’t cure our toxic internet culture. “The comments section is, by definition, driven by the readers that use it to express their reactions and opinions to news articles, often via pseudonymous or fully anonymous accounts. This format works both to the advantage and detriment of news sites.”
Ubergizmo: Austria Drafts Law That Makes It Illegal To Leave Internet Comments Anonymously
Ubergizmo: Austria Drafts Law That Makes It Illegal To Leave Internet Comments Anonymously. “The government has drafted a law that would essentially make it illegal to leave comments on websites anonymously. This essentially would require users to register their real names and addresses when making online comments, which presumably would hold internet users more accountable to the things that they say online.”
Search Engine Journal: Facebook is Testing Upvotes and Downvotes for Comments
Search Engine Journal: Facebook is Testing Upvotes and Downvotes for Comments . “Facebook has been spotted testing the ability for users to upvote and downvote comments. This test appears to be limited to the Android app, which is common when tests like these are spotted in the wild.”
BetaNews: New Google extension for Chrome filters out toxic comments
BetaNews: New Google extension for Chrome filters out toxic comments. “Tune is a brand new Chrome add-on from Jigsaw, one of Google’s sister companies, that aims to use AI to spot toxic comments and give users the ability to ‘turn down the volume’ on them.”
