Imagine if someone created a newspaper - call it The Daily Vile - in which anyone who wanted to could level insult and abuse at anyone we want without any fear of being exposed or prosecuted and without any responsibility under the law?
Oh, and it’s free to use. And The Vile will be posted through the doors of your families and friends. And your work colleagues and your employer and the police. And this can go on and on for months
Well, that’s what we have created with Twitter. It is a publication unlike any other because it is not recognised under the law as a publication - even though it is clearly under the editorial control of billionaires in the US.
If it were a publication, like The Herald, Twitter would be shut down within 24 hours.
That’s why the comments posted under every Herald column have to be closely moderated before they are printed and why people who post comments here have to declare their identity. The editors of The Herald website do this, not just because it is the law, but because it is the most basic requirement of civilised debate.
Freedom of speech is not unlimited and never has been. No one should have the right to make abusive comments from behind a cloak of anonymity.
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Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
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