OpenWeb Reviews 117

OpenWeb's coding is garbage, their AI censorbot is garbage, and their support is nonexistent. I've used Yahoo message boards for over 25 years but once they switched to OpenWeb it's the worst it's ever been. Innocuous posts get flagged or outright deleted with no explanation and no chance to correct anything. Twice now I've had my account disabled and all posts are rejected, again without any explanation as to why. Their support, if they even have one, has not replied to a single DM sent. The world would be a better place if they went out of business completely.

I would give less than a star if I could... There AI is garbage.... Cant tell why 75% of posts rejects when I waste tons of time putting thoughtful responses to trash comments in articles. I have logged many abuse complaints with Yahoo as I cant believe they use them... They must be cheap.

I experienced what many here describe when I left a comment below an article on CNN.com. I expressed a strong opinion, but did not use any foul language, nor did I attack anyone other than a very high profile political figure. I received several likes on the opinion. Then I saw that it had been "published" whatever that means. Then my comment was "rejected" without explanation as to why.
It disappeared and my access to comments on CNN.com (managed by OpenWeb) disappeared as well. This smacks of censorship.

These are the worst that exist where they manage many news pages and do not allow free expression and for any reason without having a basis and foundation because they block you but the worst thing they do is that they sell the users' information, they are a scam so no I recommend that no one comment or give their email or data on pages that they manage

They will not explain what is wrong with the following response to the claim that animals do not kill except in defense or to eat:
"Except for lions, leopards, other cats great and small. And ants. Or bees. Meerkats. Dolphins. Mongooses. Chimps. Actually, rather a few that kill preemptively, to protect territory, to bring females into heat,.. heck even housecats kill for pleasure: they aren't eating those mice and birds. Yeah. Killing for reasons other than survival abound in the animal kingdom." In denying this rebuttal, they deny reality and promulgate the spread of disinformation.

Got censored by them on Yahoo for posting a factual analysis of a stock and highlighting information from publicly available news articles that current investors may not be aware of. The US Department of Justice needs to investigate openweb for their censorship practices.

Newsweek ran a story about Riley Gaines, who supports the idea that women's sports should be for people with female bodies, and criticizing Biden for changing Title IX to include males who identify as female. A reader commented, asking about what she meant. I replied with an explanation that was factual and had no hateful language or derogatory statements. I said nothing about wider issues. It was rejected as being "against community standards." I suspect that any statement against Biden's position would be blocked.

They censor completely benign words and wording that is expressly relevant to an article which often times is used in the articles that they "moderate". Contrary to their name they actually make it harder to converse with the online community and are just a blatant censorship tool. There is absolutely no oversight over these people and no way to appeal their decisions when you've been targeted.

These people will remove innocuous comments, and when you appeal, it's rejected. In the mean time, they refuse to remove outright racist and homophobic comments, regardless of how many people report them. (Including such comments as a person stating that AIDS is a cure for gay people, and hundreds of racist comments on any post involving people of color).
Their AI got so many of my comments removed, so I appealed all of the innocuous ones, then they removed my right to appeal, all because their AI is absolute garbage.
I'd love to know how to contact Yahoo and CNN directly to make them aware of how bad this service is.

Edit: They have also repeatedly deleted any comment which is critical of their service. They don't notify you that it's been removed, it just disappears. This has happened to me several times, including today.

Oct 6: Now those POS have gone through and deleted every single comment I've ever made on Yahoo AND blocked my ability to post at all. All because I tried to post a link to FEMA addressing the lies being told about their hurricane funding.

I am on Yahoo everyday. I usually contribute a comment on news articles which Yahoo posts. The last few days every post I make has been rejected. So I tested them. I cut and pasted a direct quote from an article. No comment, just the quote. It was rejected. I appealed because I had been getting rejected each time I had posted something. Openweb has not responded to my appeals. I have been censured for no reason. I have not broken the "community guidelines". Is there a First Amendment attorney out there?

While reading an article on CNN's website, I always see a "comment" button but when I click on it, it takes me to the bottom of the page but no comments show up. There are always 200+ comments on these articles but for some reason I can't comment or see the ones that are there.

The article I was reading today when this happened is at "httрѕ://ԝԝԝ.ϲոո.ϲοm/2024/09/05/mеԁіа/ԝhіtе-hοսѕе-ϲοոԁеmոѕ-tսϲkеr-ϲаrlѕοո-ոаzі-рrοраgаոԁа-іոtеrvіеԝ/іոԁех.html#οреոԝеb-ϲοոvο"

After going to OpenWeb's site and reading their material, it appears to be a censorship platform aimed at only allowing comments that fit neatly into what the site owners want them to be, rejecting all other comments that don't fit into the narrative the site owners are pushing.

That is what it seems like it is geared toward. They boast of boosting site usage, increasing the time spent on the site by users, and user retention. I guess that works as they say when they eliminate all other points of view except for one. And perhaps that does generate more revenue for a site like CNN, but what does that do for our society by creating an echo-chamber where everyone believes the same things and repeatedly pat each other on the backs for doing so?

People who would sell our 1st amendment right to free speech for any amount of money lack the kind of qualities that true Americans have. I personally hope this company goes bankrupt and preferably before they help bring about the end of free speech.

OpenWeb is frequently censoring my comments and when I have contacted them to ask why (which honesty is a mystery to me) they do not answer. They have a number of stated purposes incl creating 'safe spaces', but no stated ambition to offer the user 'fair treatment' or 'transparancy' - and they certainly don't do that. Specifically, they should also make it clear whether a given comment has been published - now it f4lsely appears to the logged-in user as his/her comment has been posted - but it is invisible to any other user. It would also be nice to have a counter on each article that showed the number of comments they have held back for review or already rejected - it's really a joke that you can see users keep typing comments, but none gets posted - and they ironically write 'Be the first to comment'.
Maybe time for our politicians to legislate about basic transparency in the public online debate? 'Open'Web is not your friend.

One of the biggest censorship system in our western world countries. Whenever you see this name applied in a comment section of any media be prepared that any non mainstream opinion will get deleted and you banned sooner or later.

Should be called Close Web

Such systems are really dangerous for any free speech society

They shouldn't even recieve one star, they didn't earn it. The aren't a moderator company as they claim; they are a leftist censorship company that ensures that any interactions on your forum will comply with politically correct standards and that there will be no disagreements within it, essentially turning any forum into an echo chamber and fanboi cheerleader page. I haven't been able to comment on anything for over a year now on Yahoo. I must have stated the uncomfortable truth.

"Headline seems misleading since Hawley went to Governor's Ham Breakfast looking for Lucas Kunce and began with some comment about seeing Kunce outside his basement" in respose to: "‘Why are you so weird?’: Lucas Kunce taunts Josh Hawley during squabble about debates" Openweb states my comment violates the community guidelines and has been rejected.

The program OpenWeb censors things that are NOT hate speech 0%. Moreover they seem to continue to censor off and on like a person is on a special list to censor, while others comment worse comments with no repercussions. This program should be banned as it is not doing its job and most likely they have other motives for censorship with this program. Several conservative leaning people have been censored while liberal leaning people with same comments just different view were not.

Garbage. Yahoo and Huffpost uses this company to continue their Hate agenda. Moderators block your comments saying it violates community standards which is a LIE. Once they have rejected your comment you go on their list and they block all the time....Companies like this exist to spread hate and glorify liars

I commented on recent Yahoo story about a motorcyclist killed by a left-turn vehicle. I am a rider, too, and posted I feared this type of encounter as well has being hit from behind at a stop by texting drivers. The comment was rejected and I don't know why.

Just another horrible company that censors content. I honestly believe this company should be shut down.

Censorship that masquerade behind "reducing toxicity" and making internet the better place.