Days after resigning from Reddit, Pao followed up with an insightful piece in The Washington Post outlining the difficulty of balancing free expression with protecting people. “That balancing act is getting harder. The trolls are winning,” she said.
In a follow-up to that piece, Mashable’s Lance Ulanoff called for an end to online anonymity, saying: “We need to shut down online anonymity and stop confusing it with privacy. Until we kill anonymity on Reddit and elsewhere on the internet, the trolls will win, because we’re letting them.”
For all the brilliance the internet has brought society, it’s also brought us 1001 bad things. At this year’s Cannes Lions, Monica Lewinsky highlighted that, as a society, we’ve become happy to humiliate and burn others online, to drive clicks, traffic and, ultimately, ad dollars. It’s shameful, but it’s certainly not confined to Reddit. Anonymous comments on blogs like Campaign Brief and Mumbrella, or even AdNews – although we pride ourselves on not letting them through – are all part of the same problem.
The Communications Council last year put together a big report looking at the impact of those comments on the reputation of the creative industry. The report is yet to be published but the results should be closely watched.
I think things have improved from the darkest days of trolling that used to occur in the message boards of industry blog posts – but let’s be honest – it’s still rife. However, I’m proud to say that we’re not the main culprits here.
Some comments that get through our moderation process might be close to the bone. And yes, there is a difference between moderation and censorship, but we take the very deliberate stance not to permit the kind of anonymous, low-level, destructive, backbiting, knife-twisting, outright abuse that happens on our competitor sites – comments that the industry should be ashamed even exist.
It’s commonly put down to ‘tall poppy syndrome’ – but that’s a bit of a friendly term for it. Those snarky comments suggest the Australian creative industry is incapable of celebrating the success of its peers. Perhaps we could learn from South America. Brazil, for instance, has a ‘we’re in this together’ attitude that means if any Brazil agency wins, it’s a victory for the nation. Success is seen as a win for the reputation of all creatives, agencies and clients in Brazil. It helps boost morale and boost perceptions.
Why, then, in Australia – a nation so vehemently nationalistic when it comes to things like sport – are successful, credible experts in the creative community so quick to cut each other down?
From the conversations I have, over and over again, everyone shares the same disgust for those kinds of comments, and yet they continue. If you have a strong opinion, you should own it and put your name to it. Don’t hide behind anonymity to dish out hate to your peers.