THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS: It appears the next wave of problems for social media is “comment poisoning.” I can see a group (The Russians!!! The Russians!!!) sabotaging opponents and forcing removal of YouTube channels by simply adding offensive comments. Sez The Wall Street Journal:

“The Times of London reported that YouTube videos featuring young girls—in many cases apparently filming themselves, sometimes in underwear—drew hundreds of pedophiliac comments, including encouragement to do lewd acts and links to child-abuse content. The Times reported that the site displayed recommendations for similar videos, such as a view of naked toddlers taking a bath […] Videos, if posted innocently, might not in and of themselves violate YouTube’s terms of service; however, many comments posted by viewers clearly do.”

This is the same reason that many blogs, like AboveTheLaw have simply dropped their comment sections. The cost of policing trolls, ‘bots and spam is simply not worth the return on investment.