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In an effort to make websites more advertiser friendly some media outlets have taken to eliminating comment sections where, without considerable effort from moderators, they are unable to control the direction of reader conversations. But a Google-funded algorithm could change that via censorship.

The technology, called Perspective, uses machine-learning to ferret out toxic comments. Its designers reportedly based the technologys moderation standards on those used by the team of human moderators tasked with keeping discourse civil on The New York Times website. The Times is also reportedly now using Perspective to expand the number of articles it allows comments to appear on without overtaxing its moderation team.

Developers explain how the tool works thusly:

Perspective is an API that makes it easier to host better conversations. The API uses machine learning models to score the perceived impact a comment might have on a conversation. Developers and publishers can use this score to give realtime feedback to commenters or help moderators do their job, or allow readers to more easily find relevant information, as illustrated in two experiments below. Well be releasing more machine learning models later in the year, but our first model identifies whether a comment could be perceived as toxic to a discussion.

The level of potential toxicity appears largely based on the use of vulgarity or insulting language in comments.

Here are a few examples of comments the technology would deem highly toxic in comments:

And here are a few that are considered the least toxic:

Personal insults and name calling cheapen any pointand theres certainly no shortage of uncomfortable language on the internet. But is the top-down sanitation of comment sections really the answer?

How long before the machine decides whole topics are too uncomfortable for discussion and are likely to cause readers to leave?

And if the problem is online harassment, are we really going to pretend that simply silencing the true assholes among us will make them disappear? Theyll still be out there Ever been in a big city traffic jam?

Civility is important. But pretending that life isnt uncomfortable, and partially so because of the personalities of people we have to deal with, isnt the answer.

Besides, sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade or a f*cking moron.

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Behold the censorship machine! - Personal Liberty Digest

In an offhand comment Wednesday on Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski said that it was the medias job to control exactly what people think. The comments are being spread as an example of the hubris and arrogance of the mainstream media.

Joe Scarborough was talking about how the media was overreacting to Trumps actions, and how Trump supporters mock them. They go yeah you guys are going crazy,' he said, what are you so surprised about? Hes doing exactly what he said hes going to do.

Well, and I think the dangerous edges here, Brzezinski added, are that he is trying to undermine the media, trying to make up his own facts.

And it could be that while unemployment and the economy worsens, he could have undermined the messaging so much that he could actually control exactly what people think and that is our job.

Presumably by our she is referring to members of the mainstream media.

President Trump has made the media and their alleged bias the focus of his campaign and now presidency as he discovers new reasons to bash them on his Twitter account and in every manner available to him. The media has fired back and challenged him and his allies, sometimes blurring the line between traditional journalism, and partisan activism.

Trump has been especially outspoken against CNN since they reported on supposed damaging information the Russians had on the president, something that the administration has denied strenuously. The mainstream media has pounced on any instance of misleading information from the administration, while Trump has angrily denounced any hint of fake news from the media.

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MSNBC host says it's the media's job to 'control exactly what people think,' not Trump's - TheBlaze.com

New York Times

Trump Ruled the Tabloid Media. Washington Is a Different Story. New York Times Now, Ms. Stasi said, he is shocked that he is not in control of the press. Attacking the news media, which has an abysmal approval rating among Republican voters, is sound politics in the short term. But Mr. Trump's fury is less strategic than heartfelt. and more »

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Trump Ruled the Tabloid Media. Washington Is a Different Story. - New York Times

Today is Sunday, Feb. 26, the 57th day of 2017. There are 308 days left in the year.

Todays birthdays: Game show host Tom Kennedy is 90. Singer Fats Domino is 89. Country-rock musician Paul Cotton (Poco) is 74. Actor-director Bill Duke is 74. Singer Mitch Ryder is 72. Actress Marta Kristen (TV: Lost in Space) is 72. Rock musician Jonathan Cain (Journey) is 67. Singer Michael Bolton is 64. The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is 63. Actor Greg Germann is 59. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., is 59. Bandleader John McDaniel is 56. Actor-martial artist Mark Dacascos is 53. Actress Jennifer Grant is 51. Rock musician Tim Commerford (Audioslave) is 49. Singer Erykah Badu is 46. Rhythm-and-blues singer Rico Wade (Society of Soul) is 45. Olympic gold medal swimmer Jenny Thompson is 44. Rhythm-and-blues singer Kyle Norman (Jagged Edge) is 42. Actor Greg Rikaart is 40. Rock musician Chris Culos (O.A.R.) is 38. Rhythm-and-blues singer Corinne Bailey Rae is 38. Country singer Rodney Hayden is 37. Pop singer Nate Ruess (fun.) is 35. Tennis player Li Na is 35. Latin singer Natalia Lafourcade is 33. Actress Teresa Palmer (Film: The Choice) is 31. Actor Alex Heartman is 27. Actress Taylor Dooley is 24.

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In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from exile on the Island of Elba and headed back to France in a bid to regain power.

In 1904, the United States and Panama proclaimed a treaty under which the US agreed to build a ship canal across the Panama isthmus.

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In 1929, President Calvin Coolidge signed a measure establishing Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

In 1942, How Green Was My Valley won the Academy Award for best picture of 1941, beating out nine other films, including The Maltese Falcon and Citizen Kane.

In 1945, authorities ordered a midnight curfew at nightclubs, bars, and other places of entertainment across the nation.

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In 1952, Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced that Britain had developed its own atomic bomb.

In 1962, after becoming the first American to orbit the Earth, astronaut John Glenn told a joint meeting of Congress, Exploration and the pursuit of knowledge have always paid dividends in the long run.

In 1970, National Public Radio was incorporated.

In 1987, the Tower Commission, which investigated the Iran-contra affair, issued a report rebuking President Ronald Reagan for failing to control his national security staff.

In 1993, a truck bomb built by terrorists exploded in the parking garage of New Yorks World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000 others.

In 2012, Trayvon Martin, 17, was shot to death in Sanford, Fla., during an altercation with neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who said he acted in self-defense. (Zimmerman was later acquitted of second-degree murder.)

In 2016, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie stunned the GOP establishment by endorsing Donald Trump for president.

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This day in history - The Boston Globe

Tales of talented black students on majority-white campuses running through a racial gauntlet that has them questioning their brilliance, abilities and place are familiar to parents like me who have a college-bound child at home.

The trauma that sometimes comes with being a black student at predominately white institutions is tangible. In their 2015 paper, "Reimagining Critical Race Theory in Education: Mental Health, Healing and the Pathway to Liberatory Praxis," Ebony McGee, a professor at Vanderbilt University, and David Stovall, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, found that black college students who weather the effects of studying and living on predominately white campuses suffer from a "physical and mental wear-and-tear that contributes to a host of psychological and physical ailments."

"We have documented alarming occurrences of anxiety, stress, depression and thoughts of suicide, as well as a host of physical ailments like hair loss, diabetes and heart disease," McGee said in an article on Vanderbilt's website, adding that calls for black students to draw on mental toughness and perseverance what researchers are referring to these days as "grit" overlook the additional burden black students bear as they face off against overt and covert racism.

"We have witnessed black students work themselves to the point of extreme illness in attempting to escape the constant threat of perceived intellectual inferiority," McGee said. "We argue that the current enthusiasm for teaching African American students with psychological traits like grit ignores the significant injustice of societal racism and the toll it takes, even on those students who appear to be the toughest and most successful."

At a historically black college or university (HBCU), students with diverse economic, social and geographic backgrounds share similar cultural and emotional frames of reference that can take the edge off the rigors of college life.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that over the past three years, nearly a third of HBCUs have seen at least a 20 percent increase in applications a spike that correlates with nationwide protests over high profile incidents like George Zimmerman's acquittal in Trayvon Martin's shooting death and Sandra Bland's jail death after a controversial police traffic stop.

Those protests spilled onto college campuses after students at the University of Missouri, citing volatile racial aggression against students of color, demanded and got the November 2015 resignation of the school's president and chancellor, who protesters said failed to address racial problems on campus. Success by Mizzou's students sparked sit-ins, rallies and protests at more than 100 colleges and universities, reverberating all the way through to earlier this month, when Yale University announced that, after campus-wide unrest, it would rename a residential college originally named after an alumnus who was a fierce slavery advocate.

And black parents are lockstep with their children including famous ones like Taraji P. Henson, who publicly announced she decided against sending her son, Marcell Johnson, to the University of Southern California after he said he was racially profiled on the USC campus. She chose Howard University, an HBCU and her alma mater.

"I'm not paying $50,000 so I can't sleep at night wondering is this the night my son is getting racially profiled on campus," Henson said about her decision.

Like her, black parents readily admit to sleeping better at night, too, knowing that their babies are reasonably protected from possible racial violence physically, emotionally, mentally on a campus where they can engage in political, social and creative movements, and still have some modicum of room for joy in an affirming environment amid the political and social upheaval unraveling across the country America.

For black families, the choice of where a child should attend college is every bit as much about self-care as it is about getting a solid education, and HBCUs are building on their reputations for offering both in spades.

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For Black College Prospects, Belonging And Safety Often Top Ivy Prestige - WCQS