In Germany during the 1500s it was common practice for academics to post copies of their ideas on public places, such as church doors (see for example Luther's Ninety-five Theses).
With the advent of computers, the bulletin board system allowed publication of information, and users to comment on or discuss posts.
[5] Following that statement Reuters, ESPN, The Huffington Post, Popular Science, Sporting News, and USA Today either made comments gated or removed them.
[15] Comments sections can also be accessed in different ways, either directly attached to an article or video, or through a separate web page.
[16] Websites such as The New York Times found that user participation increased when the comments section was located directly below.
This lack of an entry barrier can allow more people to post and potentially lead to a discussion with more viewpoints covered.
[15] This anonymity, however, is believed by some to lead to uncivil behavior and a higher likelihood of seeing or experiencing verbal aggression in the comments.
[4][5] In response to this, both the Illinois and New York State senates have considered bills to limit non-gated comment sections.
[17] Furthermore, thanks to the internet's principle element being the ability to stay anonymous, many people realise they can be more aggressive to others without fear of real-world accountability.
[15] In some cases, both the publishers and users can offer varying degrees of moderation in comments sections through voting systems and reporting options.
[1] In February 2017, Google-founded technology incubator Jigsaw unveiled a tool based on artificial intelligence, called Perspective API, to identify toxic comments in online forums.
[21] However, Engadget denounced the underlying API, bringing attention to its discriminatory classifications – phrases like "I am a gay black woman" were scored as 87% toxic.