Ask HN: Why are comments under news articles gone?

In Australia, the cause isn't a mystery. A judge ruled publishers are liable for defamatory comments. Within a few weeks, all the comment sections were gone: https://www.sydney.edu.au/law/news-and-events/news/2021/09/1...

That one ruling took a huge toll on social discourse and civil society in Australia. It was a very sad day. Section 230 was a inspired piece of law making.

Allowing comments increases engagement but it means that underneath your article is a bunch of text saying it's wrong. I imagine the engagement/propaganda tradeoff is something to balance.

Also, we've forgotten how to write software. First, things had their own comment systems, and then they had Disqus, and now they don't have comments at all.

Because we're not longer used to this form? Just speculating, had similar thought the other day

- somehow fb / x is for interaction and commenting

- we rarely read end to end

- news sites tend to have this never-ending scroll now, where one article / news is followed by the other

The simple answer why many news media closed down comments was the fact laws changed in some countries for content control that put the onus on the platform to moderate all content regardless if that via public comments.

They should never have existed. They are an astroturfing and bot raiding bonanza. Maybe news sites have finally figured out that there’s a reason why you need editorial control and don’t let Russian, or Chinese (or American for that matter) bot army to take over your comment section to peddle whatever nonsense it is this week. Especially now with LLM’s, it’s pretty difficult to even spot the bots or moderate the comments.