Obama's Effort at Online Transparency Stymied by Internet Trolls 
President Obama's pledge to provide open dialogue on his Web site is being tested by Internet trolls -- gangs of activists who try to derail discussions -- and now the White House faces unique challenges as it tries to manage the posts without infringing on the right to free speech. By James Osborne
FOXNews.com
Monday, April 13, 2009
President Obama's pledge to open the White House up to the public through online forums faces an irksome challenge: a plague of Internet "trolls" -- troublemakers who work to derail cyber-conversations through harassing and inflammatory posts.
The problem became immediately apparent last month when Obama held an online "town hall" forum on the economy and invited the public to post questions on the White House Web site.
Three and a half million people participated in the event, but the "trolls" had their way:
Following a coordinated campaign by marijuana advocates to vote their topic to the top of the list, questions on the future of the U.S. dollar and the rising unemployment rate were superseded by questions about legalizing pot as an economic remedy. don't think these were right-wing trolls...The president himself had a good laugh about the volume of marijuana-related questions, saying, "I don't know what this says about the online audience -- we want to make sure that it was answered. The answer is, no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy."
But the die was cast. Through a perfectly legal "underground" campaign, a relatively insignificant question had risen to the top.
For the White House, the question was not so much how to answer it -- but what to do about it, and how to prevent it in the future.
Unlike privately run Web sites, whose managers are free to remove nettlesome material,
the White House finds itself searching for a way to combat these disruptive users without infringing on their right to free speech and inciting cries of censorship. yeah...free speech to those who we choose?<snip>
How is barry gonna talk to the people?http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/13/obamas-effort-online-transparency-stymied-internet-trolls/
