“You would be horrified”: Q+A social media producer on moderating comments
Q+A is famously the show that embrace Twitter, but what's it like to moderate the comments sent to the show?
- Published by David Knox
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I certainly know what it’s like to have to moderate online comments, but what’s it like to work on Q+A?
Neryssa Azlan has been a social media producer for two years and writes in an ABC article about the kind of content she sees, in light of comments around Stan Grant.
Q+A is course the show that is widely regarded has having embraced and embedded Twitter into its show.
NITV also recently halted its Twitter account, with moderators having been witness to daily abuse. Not a job for the faint-hearted.
“During my time at Q+A, I can tell you one thing: If you’re surprised by the conversations about racism, then you might be part of the problem,” she writes.
“My role involves creating content and moderating the Q+A social media pages, and sometimes even ABC News.
“Stan isn’t on social media, so his critics often come to our page to express their rage.
“Q+A encourages open debates and conversations, but the vile things I see on a regular basis are astounding.
“Politicians and public figures call out Twitter and call it a cesspool, but for the hundreds of vile comments that appear on Twitter, there are thousands more on Facebook and YouTube and other platforms.
“You have the faceless trolls, but you also see profiles that use photos of their dogs or children making racist remarks on the colour of Stan’s skin; or accounts who post about ‘spreading kindness’ and the like also spitting out bigoted takes when we have someone Indigenous or queer on the panel.
“If you knew what some of your relatives and close friends are saying behind the comfort of their screens, you would be horrified.”
You can read more here.
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3 Responses
For someone who does a lot of tweets during QAndA (and have had some make it to air)it must be horrible as it spread out to me not too long ago simply because I liked a panelist from the LGBTQ+ community. Didn’t even rave or or stick up for him just said I like what he said. And I was trolled for days. People are totally sick out there
Politicians call twitter a cesspool. They just don’t like being held to account. If they tell outright lies we are going to call them out on it.
I read the complete article and I don’t envy anyone doing a job like Neryssa does….It takes a strong willed person not to be offended by the trolling about racism and discrimination… I applaud her for having the courage to do that job…I believe that the social media platform owners needed to be held more accountable, be more vigilant and put measures in place to stop trolls.. even reporting racism, harassment, sexually explicit content especially on YouTube nothing gets done, the content is still left there for all to see, yet these sites have requests “to keep comments respectful and follow community guidelines” but the websites themselves very rarely police or block it. Trolling people for whatever reason is a reflection on the person doing the trolling and proof of how ignorant, sometimes completely uneducated, uncivilised and a coward they really are.