Periscope Asks Viewers To Vote Trolls Out Of Broadcasts

If the Internet has taught us anything, it's that we can't even get along when we don't have to be physically near each other. There's no shortage of trolls, and that includes on Periscope. The company has announced a new comment moderation system that allows other users to vote on comments (like downvoting) that are trollish or spam, as well as report them for removal if they're serious enough. A user could be booted from a broadcast if enough people vote against them.

Because of the nature of comments on live broadcasts, the company has to do things a bit differently than, say, Reddit. When a viewer's comment is reported, the person doing the reporting won't see anything else from the person. The other viewers, though, will be chosen to view the comment and choose whether they agree with the report.

If other people agree the comment is spam or abuse in sufficient enough numbers, the reported user will be muted from the broadcast's chat for a little while; if more reports come in about the user, he or she will eventually be muted for the entire duration of the broadcast.

None of this should burden users, though — Periscope says this process will last only seconds for those participating in them. As well, broadcasters themselves can disable moderation, and individual viewers who don't want to be polled on reported comments can disable their participation.

SOURCE: Medium