THE RECKLESS WRITER

Every writer has to make a decision on how much hostility they’re willing to endure when it comes to where their work is published. You don’t want to lend credibility to bad platforms, but you also don’t want to allow dangerous propaganda to go uncontested.

This is a topic that I have spent a lot of time contemplating, and I still haven’t been able to find a satisfactory answer.

In a perfect world, I would prefer to only write on platforms that had zero tolerance for hate speech. However, we don’t live in a perfect world.

We’re not even close.

You’re never completely safe from hate

We have to wrestle with the question of how to respond when we encounter hate speech. The issue is complicated because hate speech has many forms. When you encounter hate speech in comments or direct messages, the easiest thing to do is erase the comment and block/report the user.

But even that action is not without complications. I’ve had writers track me down on other platforms and accuse me of “censorship.” Usually I don’t dignify that accusation with a response and I simply block them on the new platform as well.

Perpetrators of hate speech regularly demand considerations for themselves that they don’t extend to others.

Writers must never forget that they have an obligation to protect their followers. This puts you between Scylla and Charybdis. Moderation and censorship are not the same, but people who spread hate speech aren’t known for their rational arguments.

Terms of service

There is also the question of what responsibilities platforms have to moderate hate speech. There are legal obligations that are provided in the terms of service, but even those boundaries are regularly challenged.

Neither readers nor writers are likely to abandon a platform because of hateful comments. There are a lot of ignorant people in the world. Complete…