Social media lawyer, Emma Sadleir, has applauded media giant News24 for deciding to switch off comments on their website stories as a default from this Friday.
Editor-in-Chief Andrew Trench said that they will be following the international trend in this regard.
Trench said in an article on News24 that the change followed months of internal debate about how to deal with the thousands of comments on their website daily.
He said many commentators insist on pushing the boundaries of free speech available in South Africa, adding that comments tediously drift towards hate speech at worst and, at best, are often laced with prejudice.
Sadleir told Algoa FM News that many social media commentators do not realise that freedom of expression is not an unlimited right and can be limited in circumstances when it comes into conflict with other people's rights.
"I think it is an excellent decision because I think that people often blur by what is meant by freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is not an unlimted right, it can be limited in circumstances where it comes into conflict with other peoples rights."
"What we've seen very often happening on the News24 comments is that people are spewing hate speech, defamatory content all over the comments section. I think what we need to appreciate is that even though News24 doesn't create the content itself, it's merely providing the platform, the way that the South African law is formulated means that as soon as they become aware that they're hosting inappropriate or illegal content they have a duty to either remove that content or become responsible for it themselves."
"So, the international trend that we're seeing is that the big news agencies are simply saying that it's not worth their while hosting this user-generated content because it's just too risky for them. Unless you want in a position that you can pre-moderate all the content, unless you have the people who can be in the backroom and check all the content before it actually posted on the site which is what a lot of the international companies do, then it's just not worth the while of the company to host that content."
"Because there is so much content being published we've got to curate the content. There's no point in providing a platform for people just to air their completely baseless, offensive views. What we want is good content. We're all totally overwhelmed by the amount of content in the digital world and I think that we need to start being more careful how we spend our time."
"I just think it's time that publications become more serious about the contents that they host. If you think 12 years ago if you want you opinion heard on a public platform the only option available to you was either phone a radio station or to write a letter to the editor of a newspaper and that was curated content. You've got to be able to back up what you're saying and I think that the anonymity that a company like News24 was providing people were just saying the most ridiculous things."
