It may well be, as some are saying, that people who threaten death online are less likely to actually do it because they ventilate. Possibly. But that hopeful reading of online threats is no substitute for the type of defensive moves being taken at the University of Toronto this morning. In recent days a comment somewhere on BlogTO threatened to shoot women in the university’s women’s studies department. Many publications, especially online, have a fairly rigid requirement for those wishing to comment. As well, most publications have someone take a look at what was actually said before it is permitted online. BlogTO requires only that the reader give a name and the comment is published immediately. That may be too easy. The South Bayview Bulldog reads every comment before it is published and like most publications, reserves the right to discard any comment for any reason. The most remarkable trove of obscene threatening and abusive comment by far is found on Youtube. There, for reasons not entirely clear, it seems anyone can publish anything and have it remain there indefinitely.
