ABC 17 News is launching a new commenting platform, let us know what you think

Viafoura platform incorporates AI-driven algorithm to facilitate civil discourse

Starting today, ABC 17 News is launching a new digital commenting platform powered by Viafoura.

Our goal is to provide a forum for civil and constructive conversation on the ABC 17 News website and news app.

To that end, we have developed the Community Guidelines outlined below and are pleased to announce the following new features:

• Personalized profile that allows you to create a site avatar and keep track of your personal engagement history.
• Personalized news feed that allows you to follow favorite authors and/or topics.
• Browser notifications to let you know when another commenter has responded to a thread you’re following.

To use these features and otherwise engage with our commenting platform, you will need to follow our Community Guidelines.

In addition to human moderation of the commenting platform, ABC 17 News will utilize Viafoura’s artificial intelligence-driven algorithm to monitor and moderate comments.  On its website, Viafoura explains that its “intelligent auto-moderation engine was designed by linguists and engineers to capture tone and recognize multiple forms of toxicity.  It is tailored to match your specific community guidelines to keep your community safe from hate speech, harassment and abuse.” 

Questionable comments will still be reviewed by a human moderator.

As a media company, we have a vested interest in open, robust discourse. 

At the same time, we recognize that some individuals take advantage of digital anonymity to spread misinformation or hate.  It is our sincere hope that the following guidelines strike a reasonable balance and that our users will help self-moderate respectful conversations.

We will not be fact-checking comments as a matter of course, but we reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to delete any misinformation or other content that fails to meet our Community Guidelines that we discover or of which we become aware. 

Community Guidelines

• Anyone can read our conversations, but to contribute, you must be a registered user of our site/app.
• Debate is encouraged, but personal attacks against other users or journalists will not be allowed. Repeat offenders may have their accounts banned.
• We want to hear your opinion; copy/pasting quotes from other sources longer than four lines may be disabled.
• SHOUTING is not allowed.
• Any content that is offensive, especially attacks on characteristics including sex, race, sexual orientation, disability or religion, will be disabled. This includes the use of alternative spelling, asterisks or spaces between words to try to get your comment past our algorithm. Repeat offenders may have their accounts banned.
• All posts should be relevant to the topic in the article. Off-topic posts may be disabled.
• Comments that are compliant with our Terms of Service [LINK] and Community Guidelines [LINK] will typically be visible immediately, though may take longer on sensitive stories. After you post a comment, you have five minutes to edit or delete it.
• Users must not post any personal information such as email addresses or phone numbers. Public emails and phone numbers, such as for government institutions, are allowed.
• Users may flag any comment they deem inappropriate, and a moderator will review it. Users who abuse the flag function may have their accounts banned.
• Feel free to link internally to articles on our websites. External links are limited to three per post. We reserve the right to disable any external links.
• If you have any issues or questions related to moderation, please email us directly. Complaints about moderation in the comment section will be disabled.
• Users may not post comments that violate or infringe upon copyright, trademark or patent rights, invade privacy rights or defame others or otherwise violate any applicable law or regulation. We reserve the right to disable any such comments.
• We reserve the right to close comments at any time and without notice. If/when we close comments, we will include an editor’s note to the article.
• The following content is prohibited and, if posted, will immediately result in a permanent ban: pornography, obscenity or indecent content; promotion of illegal acts, products or services; threats of violence or violent content; hate speech; posting any personal information about another user; harassment or cyberbullying.

We reserve the right to change these guidelines at any time in our sole discretion.

These Community Guidelines supplement our User Content requirements, which also apply to use of this commenting platform.

Please see our Terms of Service for more information about this and use of our site/app. Please also see our Privacy Policy for information about how we handle data.

Decisions about whether content or conduct is in keeping with our Community Guidelines are made in our sole discretion