I once again find myself in the position of saying that there is something wrong with the way people conduct themselves on social media and that it has to change.
The incident that made me want to write this story started when former English footballer Stan Collymore became the subject of racist Tweets. In the interest of not offending anyone, I have not reprinted the Tweets in question. But if you scroll through his Twitter timeline, you’ll see lots of examples that he has posted and they are extremely offensive. All of these were a response to a comment that he made that Liverpool footballer Luis Suarez cheated during last Saturday’s football match against Aston Villa by diving (or simulation as it is called in football circles) to earn a penalty kick.
While many others jumped to the defense of Collymore, it was CNN talk show host and avid Twitter user Piers Morgan who really led the charge. Via Twitter, he called for the racial abuse to stop. As a result he then became a new target for the abuse. I guess that was too much for Morgan who then aggressively pushed for the police and Twitter to do something about this, and his efforts appear to have been successful:
The Twitter users in question have all had their accounts suspended. And I suspect the users behind those accounts are getting legal advice as this sort of abuse in the UK is very illegal.
Here’s why I am writing this. This keeps happening and that is absolutely unacceptable. I wrote about this previously and it is clear that little has changed since I wrote that story in August of last year. I continue to be perplexed as to why people say and do things on social media that they not only would not do face to face, but they know is wrong. Most people who are the targets of this sort of abuse aren’t going to have a Piers Morgan jump in and defend them. Thus it is up to all of all of us to go after people who make racist, sexist, homophobic, or any other unacceptable remarks on social media. We all must make it clear that this sort of behavior is unacceptable anywhere, anyplace, at any time. We all must also make it clear that if this sort of behavior is found, it will be immediately and decisively confronted. Governments have a role in this as there need to be strong laws that are strictly enforced to act as a strong deterrent. Social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook also have a role to play in this. They too must immediately and decisively confront this behavior. I say that because there have been suggestions that in the Collymore case, Twitter dragged its feet in terms of dealing with this. Here’s what Collymore had to say:
“I accuse Twitter directly of not doing enough to combat racist/homophobic /sexist hate messages, all of which are illegal in the UK.”
If that’s true, then Twitter must do a better job like its UK arm pledged to do, but clearly isn’t.
So, will 2014 be the year that we finally put an end to this sort of abuse on social media, or will it be the year of more of the same? Only we collectively can make that choice. Let us hope that we make the right choice.
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This entry was posted on January 22, 2014 at 10:03 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Why Is There No Decency On Social Media?
I once again find myself in the position of saying that there is something wrong with the way people conduct themselves on social media and that it has to change.
The incident that made me want to write this story started when former English footballer Stan Collymore became the subject of racist Tweets. In the interest of not offending anyone, I have not reprinted the Tweets in question. But if you scroll through his Twitter timeline, you’ll see lots of examples that he has posted and they are extremely offensive. All of these were a response to a comment that he made that Liverpool footballer Luis Suarez cheated during last Saturday’s football match against Aston Villa by diving (or simulation as it is called in football circles) to earn a penalty kick.
While many others jumped to the defense of Collymore, it was CNN talk show host and avid Twitter user Piers Morgan who really led the charge. Via Twitter, he called for the racial abuse to stop. As a result he then became a new target for the abuse. I guess that was too much for Morgan who then aggressively pushed for the police and Twitter to do something about this, and his efforts appear to have been successful:
The Twitter users in question have all had their accounts suspended. And I suspect the users behind those accounts are getting legal advice as this sort of abuse in the UK is very illegal.
Here’s why I am writing this. This keeps happening and that is absolutely unacceptable. I wrote about this previously and it is clear that little has changed since I wrote that story in August of last year. I continue to be perplexed as to why people say and do things on social media that they not only would not do face to face, but they know is wrong. Most people who are the targets of this sort of abuse aren’t going to have a Piers Morgan jump in and defend them. Thus it is up to all of all of us to go after people who make racist, sexist, homophobic, or any other unacceptable remarks on social media. We all must make it clear that this sort of behavior is unacceptable anywhere, anyplace, at any time. We all must also make it clear that if this sort of behavior is found, it will be immediately and decisively confronted. Governments have a role in this as there need to be strong laws that are strictly enforced to act as a strong deterrent. Social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook also have a role to play in this. They too must immediately and decisively confront this behavior. I say that because there have been suggestions that in the Collymore case, Twitter dragged its feet in terms of dealing with this. Here’s what Collymore had to say:
“I accuse Twitter directly of not doing enough to combat racist/homophobic /sexist hate messages, all of which are illegal in the UK.”
If that’s true, then Twitter must do a better job like its UK arm pledged to do, but clearly isn’t.
So, will 2014 be the year that we finally put an end to this sort of abuse on social media, or will it be the year of more of the same? Only we collectively can make that choice. Let us hope that we make the right choice.
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This entry was posted on January 22, 2014 at 10:03 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.