Huffington Post to ban anonymous comments: No more hiding, says Arianna

stories, beginning next month.

“Freedom of expression is given to people who stand up for what they’re saying and not hiding behind

anonymity,” she said.

Huffington had just delivered the keynote address at the conference sponsored by HubSpot. Her talk focused on work­-life balance for business leaders.

But later talking to reporters after her speech, she let slip news of on the commenting announcement, which apparently had been planned for a future date.

“We’ve just made a decision — we’re going to announce it soon, but here you are — I’m announcing it now,” she said according to the Boston Globe.

Huffington said. “We’re going to end anonymity in comments.”

The Huffington Post already has an advanced comment screening algorithm and 40 human monitors.

The site, however, does not want to risk losing its robust culture of reader dialogue. Visitors have posted more than 260 million comments since the Huffington Post was launched in 2005.

On Wednesday, a story about President Obama’s unchanged opposition to legalising marijuana drew more than 1,700 comments, many readers using screen games to talk openly about personal marijuana use, including its medicinal benefits.

The discourse was mostly civil, said the Globe, and often well reasoned, but some coarse language appeared thave slipped through the Huffington Post’s screening .

Huffington added that “trolls have become more and more aggressive and uglier.”

In a question and answer session, Huffington also discussed the Globe’s pending sale to Red Sox owner John Henry.

A key to the paper’s future success, she said, will be Henry’s ability to delegate authority to people who can lead it in a digital age. The incoming Globe owner has no experience in the newspaper industry; he made his fortune as a commodities trader.

Huffington said Henry was in a different position from Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, who is buying The Washington Post.

“Bezos, obviously, is somebody who knows a lot about technology,” she said.

“He’s going to have a lot of ideas about the business model, about the platform, about every aspect. I presume [Henry] is going to be more a case of, who is he going to trust to make those decisions?”