For eight months, YouTube comments have been a little less argumentative and a bit more civil. In November 2013, Google implemented a policy that YouTube commenters needed to be logged on with a Google Plus profile to comment. That meant people talking on YouTube, trolls or otherwise, were required to use their real name to share their opinion.
Yesterday, Google and YouTube has effectively reversed that policy, by allowing people to use whatever name they choose on their Google Plus profiles, and thus, use whatever name on YouTube too.
"There are no more restrictions on what name you can use. We know you've been calling for this change for a while. ... We hope that today's change is a step toward making Google+ the welcoming and inclusive place that we want it to be," the Google+ page on Google Plus stated in a post.
Anonymity on the Internet has always been a double-edged sword. People who post under nom de plumes may speak truths they are unable to in real life, whether due to censorship, popular opinion or social manners. But that also means that people may adopt alias for the dark joy of being jerks or trolls or argumentative for argument's sake.
A study conducted by the University of Houston, outlined in a paper titled "The effect of anonymity on civility in online newspaper reader comment boards," observed that comments tend to be less civil on sites with anonymous posters. Another study, described in a paper called "Anonymity in Computer-Mediated Communication: More Contrarian Ideas with Less Influence," lends credence to that concept that anonymous comments are more contrarian and argumentative than those where the commenters were identified.
YouTube is covered with terrible conversations that are littered with angry tirades, insults and expletives. It doesn't take long to find racism, sexism, homophobia and just plain nastiness. With 100 hours of new video posted to YouTube each minute, there are more than enough venues for the worst of the world to troll others and ruin conversations
Many websites use automatic filters and public moderation to weed out the worst comments, but those measures are never perfect. Google has promised to reduce trolling and abuse via other methods.
Photo: Quinn Dombrowski
