Rise and fall of QUB Uncensored: is there a future for anonymous discussion forums?

Flavia Gouveia

In an increasingly polarised society, anonymous discussion forums can become the battleground for controversial debates. Platforms like QUB Love, initially a place for secret light-hearted confessions of crushes and annoying flatmates, have recently taken on a more serious role as they are increasingly used to discuss more serious and sensitive topics. 

But is there a future for these platforms? Recent events surrounding a new anonymous forum raised important questions about censorship and legitimate limits to free speech, and perhaps most importantly, if these pages have a future as a forum for debate on certain topics. 

The rise and fall of QUB Uncensored

Perceived bias on QUB Love led to the emergence of a new page, QUB Uncensored. Launched in December 2022, the new page promised a similar offering; a forum for anonymous submissions and confessions, but with a twist. Unlike QUB Love, the administrators of QUB Uncensored promised to tackle perceived bias by applying minimum moderation to submissions. 

Within weeks, however, the page had all but collapsed as the posts descended into arguments on sensitive topics, leading the admins to halt submissions. 

The Scoop spoke to the admins of QUB Uncensored to find out what drove them to launch the new page and why they were ultimately forced to rethink their approach. 

Speaking about the launch of the page, an administrator of the QUB Uncensored page said: “We were generally disappointed with QUB Love.” 

“We noticed that a lot of our own submissions would never get posted for seemingly no good reason. We would see posts that started with the author begging the admins to post their submissions. We also felt that there was bias from the admins, picking and choosing what social or political views get posted.”

Determined to tackle this bias, they set out to launch a new page with minimum ‘censorship’ a.k.a moderation. They said: “From the beginning, we had a no bullying or using full names policy, to avoid bringing harm to anyone.”

“We did not have a policy on hate speech because it is often subjective, and we wanted our page to have no bias. We knew that any views expressed are always open to challenge from others through comments or further submissions and we felt that this would be enough.” 

This approach ultimately led to the page's demise, as submissions took on a life of their own. Submissions on sensitive topics attracted counter-submissions, and the page found itself on a loop of harmful and what some have called ‘bigoted’ submissions. 

Within days of its first post, the content on the page led to Project Choice QSU issuing a statement condemning the page. The statement said: “The page doesn’t seem to be taking any more submissions, but what has already been posted contains incredibly harmful and untrue anti-abortion language that is very upsetting and misleading to read.” 

Project Choice urged people not to read the submissions and condemned the decision of the admins of the page to allow  “heinous anti-abortion and otherwise bigoted posts being uploaded”. 

A number of other posts also crossed the line into sexism, homophobia and body shaming. All of which drew further criticism. Anti-fatphobia advocate and host of the Fat Girl Energy podcast, Abby Davidson, said: “For a university-connected page to be openly sharing fatphobic and discriminatory rhetoric is so harmful for young students to see.”

“Body shaming is a practice that leads to real-life consequences and can severely affect people’s mental health and sense of self-worth. In 2023 we should have moved past the stigma of fat people being lazy and unhealthy, and any page that promotes such opinions must be held accountable. I am saddened that there are individuals at QUB who think it is acceptable to comment on people’s lives in this way.” 

With content on the page sinking into toxic content the admins stopped submissions.

Reflecting on the initial weeks of the page, the admins of QUB Uncensored said: “The page almost seemed to be an endless back and forth argument which was exhausting. We felt that some of the posts had hateful tones, which created a toxic atmosphere.”

It was this realisation that led the admins to halt submissions while they reconsidered their approach to moderation. Speaking of their experience, the admins of the new page said: “We wanted to create a better page where all submissions would be posted to avoid bias and censorship and to let everyone be heard. We have since realised that some censorship is ideal for everyone.”

Is QUB Love biased? 

The admins of QUB Love spoke to The Scoop and responded to the allegations that there was bias on the page. They said: “We believe one's own perception of bias can be partly based upon their own personal views on various topics.  The realm of university life is a highly complex spectrum of views and beliefs, thus impossible to appease all those within it.” 

They added: “Over the years, we have covered all of the most controversial topics that one can debate, and we have always taken the most unbiased approach possible whilst remaining within a number of different boundaries, mainly that of the Facebook Community Guidelines. We aim not to please people individually, but rather as a collective, through means such as a fair debate free of insults and derogatory behaviour.” 

Yes to moderation, but who decides? 

But while even the admins of QUB Uncensored, now QUB Unbiased, admit that boundaries are needed, the question of where these boundaries should be drawn remains. 

The approach of the admins of QUB Uncensored to moderation, while seemingly centred on preventing bias, raises questions about where the boundaries of public discussion forums should be drawn. 

Discussing moderation and hate speech, the admins of QUB Uncensored said: “We know that some positions and arguments can cause some people to feel ‘harmed’. We do not believe emotional sensitivities should trump freedom of expression. We believe this because if someone feels harmed by an opinion, it does not make them right, nor does it make the opinion wrong.” 

They added: “We believe all arguments should be discussed so that any idea or position can be challenged. We believe it is healthy for opinions and ideas to be challenged, as it tests their validity.”

Many will find that explanation unsatisfactory, but with an updated list of permitted topics which exclude sensitive topics such as gender and abortion and a policy against racial and other slurs, this may be sufficient. It will at a minimum prevent the new page reaching a second premature ending as it struggles to cope with divisive and harmful opinions on sensitive and controversial topics.

What is the future of anonymous online forums? 

Literific Internal Convenor, Ellie Byrne HLM, said: “Discussion forums online are important, but there is a danger when these things are anonymous because it is hard to ‘police’, for lack of better words, what people say and hold people accountable for harassment or bullying on those platforms.” 

They added: “But that doesn’t mean I think platforms like QUB Love should shy away from being a place where controversial opinions can be discussed. Anonymous forums like QUB Love let people discuss and discover their opinions without judgement or discrimination of those around them. However, that can easily be a double-edged sword.” 

Recently the Literific Debating society at QUB has been praised for becoming a more inclusive society. To ensure that contentious and sensitive topics can be discussed openly and fairly, the society relies on mediation, limitations and respect. Principles which would do much to elevate all public debate. But principles which are difficult to apply to anonymous online forums.

Reflecting on whether there was a palace for anonymous forums, Abby said: “Anonymous submission pages are unfortunately often abused by those who wish to harm others and think they can get away with it because their identity is hidden. They often bring out the worst in people and can be a nasty place. I have seen some healthy debate on QUB Love in the past, but whether this is the best forum for having serious debates around sensitive issues is questionable at times.” 

The admins of the longstanding QUB Love page added: “An anonymous confession page is what you make out to be; if someone wants it to be used as a means of sharing harmful commentary, they can. If they want to use it for better, they can do that too.” 

“There are two additional sides to the debates seen on these pages: the anonymously submitted opinions and the public comments that are made in response to it, so it isn't entirely anonymous, and we will sometimes let through opinions that may cause slight uproar in hopes that the people preaching to the contrary can potentially change the opinion of the anonymous poster on a particular matter, or, vice versa.”

“However, extremely harmful opinions that are not up for any sort of debate are kept at bay and declined by us instantly, into a void that will never see the light.”

But what is considered harmful is not set in stone and is subject to interpretation, so these pages are not immune to future comments and posts which may be deemed to cause harm. While there are generally accepted guidelines for what constitutes harm, there will always be those seeking to challenge those. 

This is something that the admins of QUB Love acknowledge saying: “If we were to have a glance at all controversial topics discussed on this page over the years, we don't think any of them would be generally deemed as harmful, however, this is subjective and one's perception of what is considered a harmful opinion lies partly with the individual.” 

While the limits which QUB Love has adopted throughout its history may be perceived as a manifestation of bias, it is these limits which have prevented the page from meeting the fate of QUB Uncensored.

The legacy of QUB Uncensored

While QUB Uncensored has ended, and its successor will be more heavily moderated, its brief history has raised questions about the boundaries of free speech on anonymous forums and the extent to which they can contribute to, or detract from, constructive debate. 

An acknowledgement of the slippery and subjective nature of bias, freedom of speech and what can be legitimately considered harmful speech, should not mean that public online discussion forums should shy away from drawing boundaries. Appeasing and appealing to a diverse collective while maintaining healthy boundaries is a battle that administrators of online forums must contend with if they are to remain relevant. 

Admins of these pages must walk a thin line, and the burden they take on should not be underestimated. “A page like [QUB Love] needs 24/7 attention and will most likely take a toll on your mental health, but we know what we were signing up for and we don't regret it as we know we have done so much more good than harm and our followers will say the same,” said the admins of QUB Love.

Allegations of gambling endorsement

The admins of QUB Uncensored also raised concerns about the promotion of an alleged gambling site, Student Comps, by QUB Love. The admins of QUB Love responded saying: 

“Student Comps, in short, is one of many competition sites around the United Kingdom and most people understand how they work by now. In recent years they have grown immensely in popularity with people of all ages and backgrounds and are no different to the national lottery, scratchcards and standard sports betting, which a lot of people do on a regular basis, at their own free will too.”

“QUB Love has, over the years, promoted various businesses and ideas, from dating apps and mental health charities to nightclubs, job-finding newsletters and competition sites. This is nothing new. Should it also be noted, this is not the first competition site to approach us, nor will it be the last. We chose Student Comps simply due to its relation to students. We will continue to post the occasional promotion if we believe it can be beneficial to at least a small portion of the student body here in Belfast and Northern Ireland.”

“It is nice as confession page admins to receive a small, and I mean small, return on the work that has been put in over the years with a page such as this, and you will find this to be the case with other confession pages such as Manchester, Oxford, etc. “

Flavia Gouveia is The Scoop’s Science and Environment Editor and a Journalism MA student at Ulster University.