Findings reveal digital footprint—how online comment history affects digital citizenship and reduces uncivil behavior

Online comments section offers a space for everyone to share their thoughts and engage in discussions, but can also spiraling into negativity. Encouraging digital citizenship and responsible behavior in online spaces is key to promoting healthy interactions. However, achieving this is easier said than done. Now, a study investigating the impact of disclosing online comment histories on user behavior has found that creating a sense of accountable

anonymity can significantly reduce malicious comments.

Image title: Enhancing Online Civility: The Role of Comment-History Disclosure

Image caption: A study investigates the impact of the disclosure of online comment history under a single pseudo-identity on promoting more civil behavior in online platforms. By creating the sense of digital identity, this approach encourages responsible engagement while preserving privacy.

Image credit: Prachatai on Flickr https://openverse.org/image/52ebde1b-539c-4623-b0cd-20d5f29e1422

License type: CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0

Usage restrictions: Credit must be given to the creator. Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted. No derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted.

When people interact online, their words carry weight—even if they don’t realize it. Comment sections in online platforms are thus filled with both opportunities and challenges. While they allow open expression, they are also prone to uncivil behaviors like hate speech, insults, and aggressive language. Such behavior discourages participation and can lead to severe psychological harm, especially for targeted individuals, including celebrities.

Traditional measures to tackle this issue, like moderation by humans or algorithms and real-name policies have limitations. Moderation often comes with high costs, bias, and excess monitoring, while real-name systems discourage engagement and raise privacy concerns. Algorithmic moderation can introduce biases. These methods fail to nurture personal responsibility among users. So, the big question remains: How can platforms encourage users to act with responsibility without taking away anonymity?

To address this, a team of researchers led by Associate Professor Jinyoung Min from Chung-Ang University, looked at a new strategy. The strategy, based on limiting the sense of perceived anonymity and increasing the sense of identity, derives from the premise of comment-history disclosure system. Their study was made available online on March 13, 2024, and published in Communications of the ACM, Volume 67, Issue 4, on March 25, 2024.

Instead of removing anonymity, the proposed system makes user’s past comments publicly accessible, encouraging self-regulation. By accumulating comments under a single pseudo-identity, users become more aware of their digital footprint and its potential consequences. This lets the users realize that their digital footprint reflects their online identity, much like a digital mirror. Every comment posted adds to the user's reflection, encouraging the users to think twice before posting something negative or hurtful next time. This awareness nurtures self-regulation and reduces the prevalence of malicious comments, such as hate speech and cyberbullying, which often thrive in anonymous settings.

To test the feasibility of this approach, the team compared two platforms, Naver, which implemented the comment-history disclosure system and YouTube, which did not. They examined over 1.7 million comments from 6,262 video news items. Using a robust difference-in-differences analysis, they found a significant shift in user behavior on Naver. The average tone of comments became significantly more positive after the system was introduced. Hate speech, which targets specific groups based on race, gender, or other factors, decreased notably and the average sentiment scores for comments improved by 24%. The results suggest that when people know their online actions contribute to their digital identity, they’re more likely to behave respectfully.

“This finding highlights the potential of designing online systems that promote responsible behavior while respecting privacy. By linking actions to a persistent digital identity, we can encourage more constructive engagement without compromising user anonymity,” says Dr. Min.

These findings can offer a global framework for addressing online toxicity. Platforms worldwide can adopt comment-history disclosure to reduce malicious content and promote civility, creating safer environments for meaningful engagement. As Dr. Min says, “This study provides a direct answer to the question of how online platforms can encourage more civil interactions. We believe that when people know their online behavior contributes to shaping their digital identity, they will act more civilly.”  

The ultimate goal is to nurture a healthy online community where users feel responsible for their interactions and contribute positively to discussions.

Here’s hoping that such efforts ultimately contribute to the creation of a more civil online space.

Reference

About Chung-Ang University

Chung-Ang University is a private comprehensive research university located in Seoul, South Korea. It was started as a kindergarten in 1916 and attained university status in 1953. It is fully accredited by the Ministry of Education of Korea. Chung-Ang University conducts research activities under the slogan of “Justice and Truth” Its new vision for completing 100 years is “The Global Creative Leader” Chung-Ang University offers undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programs, which encompass a law school, management program, and medical school; it has 16 undergraduate and graduate schools each. Chung-Ang University’s culture and arts programs are considered the best in Korea

Website: https://neweng.cau.ac.kr/index.do

About Associate Professor Jinyoung Min

Jinyoung Min is an Associate Professor of College of Business & Economics at Chung-Ang University, South Korea. She received her Ph.D. in management engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Korea. Her research interests include data privacy and personal information, and social technology. Her research articles have been published in Computers in Human Behavior, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, International Journal of Information Management, Communication of the ACM, Information & Management, and more.

Website: https://scholarworks.bwise.kr/cau/researcher-profile?ep=1438