Irish Times website no longer allowing comments

It is happening all over, there is a big move towards online censorship in the past few years, all in the name of preventing trolls and what have you but really it is to suppress dissenting opinions. The Journal got a handout from the EU to promote climate alarmism and they are also very quick to ban people now

The problem is that people think that they are on twitter, Facebook etc every time they post something. They say things that they most likely wouldn't say in real life. I gave up looking at the comment section years ago

I thought the comments on the IT web site were in general much sharper than the Letters to the Editor. It's rare that a letter printed in the Irish Times displays any wit or discernment.

It is a conspiracy theory. The increase in censorship is all around us though. It's such a change from the 'Wild West' days of the internet with unmoderated USENET groups and what have you

The Journal is the drizzling **** when it comes to open comments - watch what happens when they let one of the trans lobby take the soapboax to rebuke everyone with guff that has more logic holes than a Swiss cheese, but you have no recourse - the weirdo has spoken now be quiet. Comments always are closed and they won't even post the article on Facebook because they know exactly what the reaction will be. An absolute shitstain of a site parading as journalism.

Noticed that with Breda O'Brien's piece today. They often turn of the comments if it's guest columnist or about a legal issue or something but I'd never seen Breda's screeds cut off before. I do like to look at the feedback but I can understand why the IT decided it's not worth the hassle.

Edit: apparently comments

Oooh, funnily enough that would encourage me to subscribe and actually look at the comments section. I feel like a lot of trolls would be weeded out by the subscription fee.. interesting.. I must look at the subscription fee.

I’d rather I had the ability to read something which I vehemently disagreed with and the ability aim a retort then have the option removed altogether.

problem for the site probably with life being id say at an all time controversial setting with the Ukrainians coming to enjoy our benefits, services, security, cash and accommodation plus. , Covid and everything that entails…. There will be undoubtedly certain passionate responses….from both sides of these and other debates… that might require a certain level of moderation which The Times might be unwilling to facilitate as it might alienate certain clients..

from the Times website…

• In pursuance of the foregoing and to enable readers of The Irish Times to reach informed and independent judgements and to contribute more effectively to the life of the community, the following principles govern the publication of The Irish Times: news shall be as accurate and as comprehensive as is practicable and be presented fairly; comment and opinion shall be informed and responsible, and shall be identifiable from fact; and special consideration shall be given to the reasonable representation of minority interests and divergent views.
• We welcome readers’ views - be it to the Letters to the Editor page; by letter, email or fax. We encourage readers’ participation by way of user generated content, social media posting or comment at the end of an article through irishtimes.com. Readers can also express their views by way of postal or telephoned response to The Irish Times.

they encourage reader participation ? Really ? Might as well change the URL to spoofdotcom.

The comment sections never resemble anything like the idealised discourse you describe though, where there's well argued points that I may disagree with. It's a moronic cesspit of posts with nothing worthwhile to add.

You could programme a bot to just post the same statement under every article insulting the greens, politicians, the government, the EU etc. and it would utterly hoover up likes.

I wonder will it be the same near future that boards.ie is operating in when it comes to the return of old features

They are not all, but some are.

The Guardian generally has a good comments section for example.

You have heard of email? lettersed@irishtimes.com

Nice try but I didn't say that many of the comments should not be published.

I didn't realise you were being facetious. (by the way see how easy it is to be misunderstood in online comment).

You might characterise it as anachronistic others might say it is tradition.

As I said earlier this is not personal.

They don't tweet every story, but you can tweet in response to most. Not that Twitter is a solution to anything really.

I noticed that they tended not offer comments on their stories that were right on BS, such as anything written by Kitty Holland. I think they know those would be torn to shreds and didn't want the scrutiny.

Boards can, and frequently does, edit or delete posts and ban posters. Is that censorship? Hundreds of "fight da powa" threads in Help Desk say no.

What's climate alarmism? Why would the EU pay The Journal for anything? Have you any evidence of any of this?

The IT does offer a right of reply if a person disputes anything they publish about them and can prove it is incorrect.

See today's letter from Terry Prone in IT today.

Corrections of fact are published regularly.

Closing comments is a different thing.

Well we are in agreement about that anyway.

I still don't think it's censorship to stop "Mr Angry" from having his say on the topics of the day.