Toxicity

Abstract

In research on online comments on social media platforms, different terms are widely used to describe comments that are hateful or disrespectful and thereby poison a discussion. This chapter takes a theoretical perspective on the term toxicity and related research in the field of computer science. More specifically, it explains the usage of the term and why its exact interpretation depends on the platform in question. Further, the article discusses the advantages of toxicity over other terms and provides an overview of the available toxic comment datasets. Finally, it introduces the concept of engaging comments as the counterpart of toxic comments, leading to a task that is complementary to the prevention and removal of toxic comments: the fostering and highlighting of engaging comments.