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Original poster

The Times is now turning off comments on all 'gender' articles

135 replies

MiladyBerserko · 13/03/2022 10:13

The Times continue to cover this issue but now turn off comments on all 'gender' related articles. They do not turn off reader comments on any other topic, except where there is an open legal issue.

I am beyond frustrated with this. The Guardian nailed their colours to the 'Transwomen are women' mast a long time ago and disallow comments.

Now The Times seemingly cannot / will not allow reader feedback.

What is it about this issue that makes organisations run scared?

OP posts:
butnobodytoldme · 13/03/2022 14:12

Can we continue the next-item-along-comments work round, as currently practiced, which gives solid support for women and the pro-women columnists they do publish, to their credit? But also, choose a regular target, because not all politicians will read comments on (today) Sheeran. What section of the paper would they be pretty certain to read?

Gastonia · 13/03/2022 13:20

I posted about this yesterday. I am really cross about it. I feel there would be a good article about this for The Spectator, say, as clearly a lot of subscribers feel annoyed about this censorship. It's totally different from their editorial policy.

MrsOvertonsWindow · 13/03/2022 13:18

I suspect that Press for Change and the other groups who've been able to silence and manipulate the press for so long are continuing to exercise their Putin like approach to democracy and free speech and are threatening use their massive funding to engage the media in costly legal battles base on below the line comments?
They've been able to capture all our institutions via their secret backroom deals for so long that the emerging of democracy, accountability and the rights of others must be a shock for them. As the Times continues to report the issues freely, I suspect they've decided that sacrificing comments are worth allowing journalists to report all the continuing scandals / outrages around this issue.

Cuck00soup · 13/03/2022 13:07

They have pissed off a lot of their subscribers with this. Such a shame after John Whybrow (? Sp) supported Janice Turner in a recent radio interview.

Original poster
MiladyBerserko · 13/03/2022 10:47

I think it's outsourced. But they are still censoring their subscribers.

OP posts:
ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 13/03/2022 10:45

Does the Times do their own moderation or do they outsource that to OpenWeb too?

Original poster
MiladyBerserko · 13/03/2022 10:25

@malloo

I suspect it may be because of the large number of comments and the time commitment needed to moderate them.
I think this may be the reasoning but the answer is do not moderate. They already have the details of all subscribers. It is clear that people are responsible for their own published words.

This is censorship, pure and simple.

OP posts:
malloo · 13/03/2022 10:20

I suspect it may be because of the large number of comments and the time commitment needed to moderate them.

happydappy2 · 13/03/2022 10:18

I am really uneasy about this-The Times have an article in the Scottish section today about how harmful gender ideology is to children-my comment was published, received a like and then comments have been turned off.

Who is putting pressure on them not to allow comments? How can they do this?

teawamutu · 13/03/2022 10:16

I don't know, but lots of subscribers have taken to commenting on those stories on every other story. It's going to be interesting to see how the Times responds.