It’s been about a month since The Globe and Mail closed comments on all articles about the Middle East. The decision, which has drawn a mix of responses from readers, was not made lightly.
It was the next logical step in a series of measures The Globe and its comment moderators have implemented over the past 21 months to prevent – or at least significantly reduce – posts spreading misinformation or expressing rampant abuse of other commenters, as well as Globe and Mail journalists.
Taking Care, a 2022 report on the mental health of media workers across Canada, revealed just how damaging repeated exposure to online abuse has become. “One CBC journalist told us the toxicity directed at media workers has had an impact: ‘It is taking more of a toll on me than interviews with trauma victims.’”
So many comments are toxic, with posters emboldened by the remote, generally anonymous nature of online commenting to write things they would never say to a journalist’s or fellow commenter’s face. (Some online platforms require commenters to use their actual names, but that’s a topic for another time.)
And moderators suffer as well. Fifty per cent of those surveyed by the organization for online moderators in Australia reported that maintaining good mental health was a major job-related challenge.
Standards Editor: A timely reminder of The Globe’s guidance on war reporting
The Globe’s policy on closing comments applies not only to news articles about the Israel-Hamas war, but also stories about other countries in the Middle East, across all sections, including business, life and opinion.
This follows the introduction on Nov. 17, 2023, of time-limited commenting on coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, which extended to all Globe articles the following day. The intention has always been to monitor the effectiveness of the policy and adjust as appropriate; as such, the window was experimentally extended to five days in October, 2024.
However, the volume of negative comments once again became difficult to manage and, after the one-month trial, the window was set to the current 48 hours (which remains for most articles that do not deal with the Middle East).
As always, comments may be closed on any article for legal reasons, such as with coverage of ongoing criminal investigations or trials, or when the volume of abusive posts becomes too great to manage.
The closure of comments is certainly not unique to The Globe; news media organizations have partially or fully closed their comments sections for similar reasons for more than a decade.
For example, in 2015, CBC began closing comments on most stories covering Indigenous issues. The national broadcaster’s rationale: “We noticed that these stories drew a disproportionate number of comments that cross the line and violate our guidelines. Some of the violations are obvious, some not so obvious; some comments are clearly hateful and vitriolic, some are simply ignorant. And some appear to be hate disguised as ignorance (i.e., racist sentiments expressed in benign language).”
The Globe has experienced this as well and has selectively closed commenting on articles about Indigenous peoples or issues.
In January, 2017, the McGill Daily told readers that the independent McGill University student newspaper was closing comments for all articles other than editorials, citing abusive comments as the reason: “The most hateful comments left on our website are on pieces written by women, trans people, and people of colour.”
After many years of transparent discussion, today The Guardian allows commenting on select articles only. Based on a study of 70 million comments posted by its readers since 2006, in 2016 the London-based news organization found that “some subjects attracted more abusive or disruptive comments than others. Conversations about crosswords, cricket, horse racing and jazz were respectful; discussions about the Israel/Palestine conflict were not.”
As I mentioned in previous columns, The New York Times implemented time-limited commenting well before The Globe did and has long allowed commenting on select stories only. Meanwhile, The Globe continues to open comments on the vast majority of articles published online.
An exception to The Globe’s most recent closure policy was made for the Aug. 15 editorial. Focusing on the importance of free speech, the editorial opened with a discussion of the Toronto International Film Festival’s decision not to screen a film about the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. Prior to its publication, a decision was made to allow commenting, given the editorial’s theme of free speech; however, shortly after publication, comments were closed in error. That was quickly rectified, but not without speculation among the 322 posts the editorial attracted within the customary 48-hour commenting window.
A subscriber with the user name whengoodmendonothing posted: “As many have noted here, OUR Comments are Moderated and this private sector media corporation has no problem managing our ability to voice an opinion all while driving the bus in terms of what’s reported and what is open for discussion.”
That comment echoes the sentiment conveyed by some readers who e-mailed me directly to say they believe the closure of comments on Middle East coverage is meant to muzzle discussion and criticism of the coverage.
As I have replied to several readers, thoughtful criticism is always welcome, but assertions without evidence, personal attacks and hateful or crude language are not.
Some readers have contacted me to say they appreciate the closing of comments or that they would prefer comments remain open but understand why closure is necessary. A subscriber with the user ID app_70372176, in response to whengoodmendonothing, posted, “In fairness to the G&M, many news sites have handled the difficulty of managing comments by not having a comments section at all.”
Feedback, as always, can be shared in the form of letters to the editor, directly to Globe newsroom staff (e-mail addresses can be found at theglobeandmail.com/about/contact/) or, as many subscribers who correspond regularly already know, to me at standardseditor@globeandmail.com.