I help manage 10+ local newspaper websites, and moderation is a constant issue for us as well. We want to provide a place for the local community to have civil

I help manage 10+ local newspaper websites, and moderation is a constant issue for us as well. We want to provide a place for the local community to have civil discussions, but many folks are misinformed and pridefully vocal about their ignorance. We see constant racism, personal attacks, and off-topic comments. Our approach has been to turn comments off on some stories, and even whole publications. We have human moderation and machine moderation. A local hospital requested that we consider turning comments off on covid articles, because the commenters are littering the conversation area with false information and political attacks. I used to think that I would love to see a censorship resistant internet experience like TOR replace our centralized systems, but I don't know now. George Carlin said it best; people are dumb. The less misinformation folks are able to access, the better our society will be. I think folks should be able to discuss topics freely with an audience, but they need to build that audience on their own. They can use email, messengers, host a forum, etc. Online public/general forums are notoriously ineffective and a huge waste of time, unless there is a barrier to entry and repercussions for misbehavior.