By Gabriel Maggio, Jr.
Be proud and shout from a rooftop or even from a mountaintop.
You deserve to have your voice heard. If you don’t stand for something, you stand for nothing and will fall for anything.
Over the last couple months, I have been noticing that more and more Facebook comments, on various threads, have been claiming that the Windsor Star has been apparently deleting benign comments in their article’s commentary section.
Honestly, I thought that it was just a glitch, or some other internet phenomenon. For some odd reason the commentator just couldn’t see their comments. It was not until one person privately inboxed me and asked if I could see the comment they posted. My glitch assumption was reinforced when I discovered I could.
But then more and more other Star commentators started stating the same was happening to them.
Coincidence? Maybe.
But then yesterday it happened to me for the first time. The Star in fact did delete two comments I made on the same thread. I am confident they did as the comments consisted of only a link and no comment. They apparently couldn’t handle a simple post with a link to a story on the Windsor Square which clarified an issue that the Star has never really reported on.
If The Windsor Star can’t handle opposing opinions then maybe they should do away with the commentary section all together. And the same goes for all other independent blogs and forums online.
There is an alternative solution in all of this.
I understand the reasoning in deleting comments that may be vexacious. But, deleting a simple link? Such a deletion screams undue censorship.
The real problem I have noticed is found in the debate between a real Facebook profile and anonymous Facebook profile. We refer to those anonymous commentators as “trolls”. They lack a spine and other bodily parts that make a person confident and able to stand for what they believe in. Why? They fear some sort of reprisal.
Allowing these type of facebook accounts, permits anyone, including those elected to office, to comment and create arguments while posing as a “fake” resident of Windsor or stakeholder. They get away supporting falsehoods and try to capture and fool an uniformed percentage of the population.
This was evident recently in the ongoing battle about 6 years of misinformation regarding property tax freezes and more recently regarding the arguments between the Firefighter’s Association and City Administration.
The Windsor Star and any other forum should consider stopping anonymous “troll” commentary. Doing so will create a more lively and credible debate and reflect positively on the forum hosting the piece. Commentators on both sides of the debate become more accountable. Racist, profane, libelous, defamatory or even false information will be significantly curtailed.
The Huffington Post is leading by example.
The Huffington Post no longer allows anonymous comments and there are great reasons why.
Although they have not dealt with the issue full on. They are at least taking an important step forward.
We too in Windsor should step up and require minimum standards to a commentator’s profile. The current standard is somewhat convenient for anyone with a hidden agenda.
If you can’t put your real profile to your post, should you really deserve any standing?
A New City 