‘Periscope’ To Punish Trolls By Taking Them To Court

When Twitter acquired the live streaming app Periscope along with talent agency Niche in 2015 for $86.6 million, the move seemed to reinvigorate the social media company’s growth potential. However, the app still retains one of the most common problems in the internet: Trolls. It seems that Periscope finally has an answer for the online pestilence though, and it comes in the form of a user-based court system.

As Recode explains it, users will report any comment made by another user which can be considered vile, abusive, or threatening; basically, what every troll does. Once the report has been made, other users can then jump in and weigh in if the comment was indeed troll-ish. If they declare the comment as such, the troll will be banned from making another comment on the same live streaming for one minute. Repeat offenders will be banned from posting comments permanently.

Now, it should be noted that other website already have protocols when it comes to combatting inappropriate comments. Users will flag or report abusive, spam, or illegal posts for administrators to check. After that, it will be up to the moderators to act on the report.

This is the first time that a company has given users the power to decide what happens to the troll. Periscope is essentially giving their mob of users the ability to act as more of a mob with authority.

According to Aaron Wasserman, a senior engineer Periscope, the reason why this kind of system is necessary lies on how quickly things happen in a live stream. A comment can be posted, do the damage, and get buried under a pile of other comments. With this new system, immediate action can be taken.

When asked why Periscope just doesn’t ban these trolls the first time they make abusive comments, Wasserman said that it was also to give these users a second chance.

"It was really important for us to offer a path to rehabilitation. We’re actually inviting you to stick around and do better next time,” he said.