Global News Commenting Policy
Global News welcomes your comments! We invite you to contribute to the discussion and engage in lively debate. Please be civil and respectful to others, leave out profanity and keep your comments constructive and on topic.
Links to external sites are accepted, but Global News is not responsible for the content on those sites. Sometimes audience feedback leads to new story ideas and follow-up articles, so we reserve the right to include your comments in future coverage.
What’s acceptable?
The importance of free speech and debate in a democratic society cannot be overstated, but that doesn’t give anyone the right to make comments that are defamatory, unlawful, malicious, threatening, overly sexually explicit, profane or advocate violence. Harassing or attacking other people who comment will not be tolerated. If you don’t observe these guidelines your comments may be deleted without notice. Serious abusers of our policies will be reported and permanently banned.
Spam, graffiti, campaigning and advertising are also strictly prohibited. No SHOUTING please.
Do I have to log in through Facebook?
Yes. Globalnews.ca uses the Facebook comments plug-in as an efficient way to administer our commenting system.
How are the comments moderated?
Most comments are post-moderated, meaning that Global News may remove comments that are already published on the website. If a comment disappears, it’s likely because it violated our commenting guidelines.
What if I see a comment that violates the commenting guidelines?
Click on the drop-down menu (located in the upper right hand corner of the comment) and choose to hide it. You won’t see that comment any longer and it will appear in a queue for Global News moderators to review. You may also choose to report violators to Facebook.
Why are comments closed on some stories?
Due to legal concerns and the sensitive nature of some content on globalnews.ca, we reserve the right to disable comments from time to time.
I see a comment that appears to be selling a ‘get-rich-quick’ scheme
We have a zero-tolerance policy for comments that promote commercial endeavours. Often these turn out to be spam. Global News takes no responsibility for any of the claims made by these spammers. We will remove and ban their comments without warning. You can help keep Globalnews.ca spam-free by opening the drop-down menu on the upper right hand corner of the comment, and marking it as spam.