twitter

Read a really interesting article today about the power of Twitter. The article spoke of two individual cases. One was the sacking and subsequent reinstatement of an individual who had been accused of certain irregularities. He was sacked before the irregularities could be investigated and found to be false. The second was the accusations made by “Nick”, costing millions of pounds in legal costs, severe damage to the integrity of person both living and dead and caused ripples of panic and fear along the way. Both cases were fuelled by posts on Twitter.

I do have a Twitter account but I use it to follow people of interest to me-by that I mean politicians, various groups and pressure groups, and of course my own MP. Most of the time the posters post inane drivel but sometimes I am stunned by the comments that are put there-I'm looking at you-my MP. Accusations, counter accusations, undermining individuals, sometimes out right liable. Another potential evil is Facebook where my local councillors, after years in the wastelands see fit to use any opportunity to hurl personal criticism at the previous administration and to use that platform to endlessly push their own brand of politics

And I wonder sometimes, if in the excitement of a discussion, the individuals posting get carried away and forget the potential wider audience, all to score a point. Most of the time it doesn't matter. But sometimes, it really does. Reputations get tarnished and even if its later retracted, mud sticks.

I'm beginning to wonder whether it might be wise for people in the public eye to be strongly advised not to have a twitter account at all. You might say to me, don't look at the posts if they annoy me so much, but that isn't the point. Online posts don't ever go away and somewhere down the line, someone can bring together these posts and use it against you.