{"id":15213,"date":"2021-06-29T05:56:17","date_gmt":"2021-06-29T09:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=15213"},"modified":"2021-06-29T07:33:58","modified_gmt":"2021-06-29T11:33:58","slug":"un-civil-discourse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=15213","title":{"rendered":"Uncivil discourse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writing in the Toronto Star<\/a> recently about CBC’s decision to suspend comments for a month, Navneet Alang said<\/a> “the social media era has upended some of our most cherished ideas around speech \u2014 and that guaranteeing someone a platform for their feedback isn\u2019t just unnecessary, it\u2019s actively harmful.” <\/p>\n

His article includes themes that I have covered a number of times in the past, in such posts as “The fourth degree”<\/a>, in which I reminded readers that comments are moderated on this platform. <\/p>\n

Alang wrote:<\/p>\n

At its ideal, the comment section under a story can correct mistakes, challenge assumptions, and give voice to what was not depicted or described.<\/p>\n

That does indeed happen on Facebook sometimes, even today. But what you also get in those same comment boxes are wild conspiracy theories, baseless ravings, misogyny, racism, and other forms of hatred, both subtle and outright, and more. It is in short a toxic stew, one in which the beneficial aspects of comments come with considerable costs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Uncivil discourse isn’t just found in comments sections of news articles. Recently, a Canadian university professor cancelled his Twitter account after he was called out for writing a number of antisemitic posts, although he was rewarded with a $2.5M grant by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, which apparently doesn’t care about unsocial behaviour by its recipients.<\/p>\n

Last week<\/a>, I observed that the discourse following the CRTC’s review<\/a> of its error-filled 2019 wholesale rates decision<\/a> has been over-the-top with inappropriate personal attacks, especially from anonymous accounts on Twitter. Since then, it seems to be getting worse, as these (often anonymous) commentators descend into old fashioned muck-raking which perversely accelerates the impression in the public’s mind that the CRTC lacks authority, integrity, and independence.<\/p>\n

When such comments get amplified by official corporate blogs and Twitter accounts calling for the government to fire the Chair of the Commission, this serves to undermine the very concept of due process under the law. In Canada, if you don’t agree with a CRTC decision, there are 3 channels of appeal<\/a> available; a coup d’\u00e9tat is not one of them. <\/p>\n

Former CRTC vice-chair Michel Arpin wrote a reply<\/a> to one of the attacks on the current CRTC chair, saying:<\/p>\n

The decision was unanimous, no dissent by a group of 9 members. A fair number of these members have a telecom background particularly the two vice chairs who are long time civil servants having spent a major part of their career in telecommunications. So stop accusing Ian Scott.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As I wrote in April<\/a>,<\/p>\n

Confronted with inconvenient facts, apparently some people feel the need to resort to ad hominem attacks, rather than preserving the obscurity they so richly deserve.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not offering a solution; I\u2019m just finding there is some catharsis in venting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Your comments are welcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writing in the Toronto Star recently about CBC’s decision to suspend comments for a month, Navneet Alang said “the social media era has upended some of our most cherished ideas around speech \u2014 and that guaranteeing someone a platform for their feedback isn\u2019t just unnecessary, it\u2019s actively harmful.” His article includes themes that I have …<\/p>\n

Uncivil discourse<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nUncivil discourse • Telecom Trends<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Writing in the Toronto Star recently about CBC's decision to suspend comments for a month, Navneet Alang said "the social media era has upended some of • June 29, 2021\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=15213\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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