Industry Leaders Propose Code of Conduct for Bloggers, Some Say Censorship

Censorship or Civility

Should bloggers be held to standards of conduct or would a code of conduct be a form of censorship?

This is a question currently under avid debate. Some industry leaders propose a code of conduct is needed. An effort stimulated by recently publicized cases of death threats, defamation and other cyberbullying tactics. 

Advocates include well-known book publisher Tim O'Reilly who recently began working with Jimmy Wales, creator of Wikipedia, to craft a set of guidelines that could influence online discussion and debate. (New York Times).

The proposal focuses on banning anonymous comments, now commonly left on blogs, and reinforcement for blog owners who wish to delete defamatory or threatening content.

While it may seem logical that a blog owner could do as they please and delete nasty posts, repercussions for bloggers who execute the presumed right are on the rise.

Just recently tech author Kathy Sierra, received death threats in part because she supports the right to delete improper blog posts. Opponents refer to this behavior as censorship.

O'Reilly, a purported friend of Sierra, tells the NY Times that such incidents "gives us an opportunity to change the level of expectations that people have about what's acceptable online." His recommendations can be found on his company's blog. (radar.oreilly.com).

Wales followed suit and posted the guidelines to his site, (blogging.wikia.com), to elicit feedback and consensus as to what "constitutes civil behavior online".

The two tech industry gurus propose "several sets of guidelines for conduct" and seals of approval represented by logos.

This enables the code of conduct to be flexible for different types of blogs. For instance, some blogs are conducive to anonymous postings. But the hope is to differentiate among the level of discourse readers will find and bloggers accept.

Interested bloggers would pick a set of guidelines to follow and receive the appropriate logo designating their blogging policy.