(Credit: Wikipedia)

New Zealand’s Stuff website is changing how it moderates online comments after the March 15 Christchurch mosque terror attack. According to the Agence France Presse, Stuff is “New Zealand’s largest news website.”

In a March 26 article, Stuff editor-in-chief Patrick Crewdson wrote, “March 15’s malevolent terrorist attacks in Christchurch have prompted public discussion about the character of internet communities and the media’s role in handling hateful speech.”

According to Crewdson, Stuff receives and moderates more than 7,000 comments daily but “about a third” don’t get posted. Stuff issued new guidelines to “cut out comment pollution,” he wrote. The rules include training staff on the comment guidelines, banning personal attacks or prejudice, ensuring certain stories won’t have comments, removing the option to upvote or downvote comments and adding a report buttoin to flag problematic comments.