The 23-year-old fixing the world of online debate
How do you get people to talk to each other politely on the internet? It may seem like an impossible task but could the answer be found in the Highlands of Scotland.
Online debate is broken – full of angry shouting and mindless agreement. And that’s even before you get to the trolls, lies, misinformation, and fake news.
This week we visit Inverness, in the Highlands of Scotland, to meet a man with a plan to fix this problem.
Six years ago, when he was a curious, guitar-playing student, Kal Turnbull started a subreddit – a section of the website Reddit - called Change My View. He encouraged people to post their opinions and invite other users to politely argue against them.
It took off, and now has more than 700,000 subscribers. And now Kal wants to take the idea beyond Reddit, with a new website – ChangeAView.com – which just launched.
We stroll around a very damp Inverness to find out more about his new business, ask Kal about some of the criticisms that have been levelled at it, and look at how online debate became so unhealthy.
Presenters: Jonathan Griffin and Mike Wendling
(Photo Caption: Kal Turnbull on the banks of the River Ness / Photo credit: 91Èȱ¬)
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- Fri 14 Jun 2019 21:06GMT91Èȱ¬ World Service except West and Central Africa
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