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? asked in TravelAsia PacificJapan · 2 weeks ago

It's been a while since most online news outlets in the US and elsewhere stopped letting ordinary people comment on news articles. Why?  ?

They used to be my reliable source of information, sometimes far better and more reliable and educational than the article itself. It's still allowed in Japan. Any thoughts? 

Update:

It's a different form of censorship, or pre-censorship, not letting ordinary people's opinions be heard, it's against the spirit of the freedom of speech. Good thing Yahoo! Japan still maintains Yahoo Comments. Viva democracy. 

Update 2:

Shutting down Yahoo! Answers US seems to be another move to not let people share their opinions freely.  Good thing again that Yahoo! Answers Japan is not going to close because Yahoo! Japan is run by a different company from Yahoo!. 

2 Answers

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  • 2 weeks ago

    I'm sure in school a teacher told you that when one person acts badly, the others can lose privileges they had enjoyed. There were too many trolls trying to create dissension and division, and trying to spread misinformation about things like the COVID vaccines- that has actually cost people's lives. "Freedom of speech" has always been limited when people's lives were endangered. 

  • 2 weeks ago

    Probably because most of the comments were off topic, nonsensical, or from people with an axe to grind. You know, the ones that manage to relate every single thing to the current political administration, even if the article was about how the trees budded out late this spring or how tomatoes are grown. That's what I see on the places that allow comment.

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