Internet troll can affect experts, says web executive

Xu Lai, vice-president of guokr.com, considers it important to keep science close to daily life by discussing hot topics online.

“Popularizing science has always been our aim. Only the channel of communication has now changed. On the internet, the speed at which both scientific messages and myths spread is fast,” he said.

“We want to popularize science by passing on knowledge to those who don't know enough about something. Our website is also helping our staff and authors to build their individual profiles on social media so as to draw more people.”

According to him, in the past, people with higher education in China were mostly considered fit to speak on different subjects but everyone has the same right to speak online in the internet era.

“It means that elitism is collapsing. I can’t tell if it is a good or bad thing, but such a phenomenon was challenging the popularization of science among the general public,” Xu said.

But the new situation is also leading to meaningless responses, including internet troll and that can discourage the disseminators of information.

Scientists play an important role in popularizing science because of their authority in the field, but sometimes they might lose self-confidence when such things happen online, he said.