“Why do you turn off comments on some of your videos?”

“Why do you turn off comments on some of your videos?” is a question that popped up on my TikTok account recently.

I had made a video about some of the misunderstandings surrounding the so-called “undocumented” asylum seekers coming to Ireland. The video is here if you care to take a look: “Let’s talk about asylum seekers coming to Ireland with no documents”.

I turned off comments because I am not going to give an audience or platform to hate filled, racist, odious comments. And the video was attracting a disproportionate number of such comments when I had it open for comments.

So, I closed it. If racists and radical right want to publish such comments on TikTok or elsewhere they can do so on the back of their own work and on their own page.

Not mine. That is why I am sometimes compelled to turn off the comments.