Yahoo should say so if it deems any harsh criticism of anything or anyone "abusive."
Yahoo should say so if it deems any harsh criticism of anything or anyone "abusive." As it stands now Yahoo news comment guidelines are unclear. Anything a Senator might say should be OK for Yahoo commenters as well. Words like "incompetence" or "disgraceful" should be OK as long as a comment is newsworthy, coherent, and not clearly actionable as defamation. False statements are actionable but opinions no matter how misguided are not. If Yahoo does not permit any but the mildest and most respectful criticisms of anything or anyone it should say so. If that's not Yahoo's position it should clarify that too.
Steven Mitlitzky
shared this idea
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Steven Mitlitzky
commented
I'm not saying that Yahoo is intentionally chilling legitimate comment by people commenting on its news stories but the term "abusive language" in its commenting guidelines is confusing without further elaboration.