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Freedom of Tweets...

Blogging and tweeting comes with consequences...

By john harrisonPublished 6 years ago 4 min read
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Reading the news (via a news outlet or social media) over the last few days, there are a few social media related stories that pop out at you. One constant feature of the news these days is US president Donald Trump and his ongoing issue with his social media activity. When he's not inventing new words or re-tweeting extremist propaganda, he's tweeting statements that may end his presidential career. By tweeting “I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!” he's pretty much stating he knew about Flynn's actions and therefore is subject to obstruction of justice charges. It's all very political and highly charged at the moment and pro or anti-Trump, it just highlights an element of the issues with social media, blogging, and vlogging; there are ramifications to whatever you post online.

A more serious impact of blogging what you think (or know) was detailed in a story released this morning (Monday December 4). Ten people were arrested in Malta in response to the car bombing of Daphne Caruana Galizia, an investigative journalist in Malta who regularly blogged about corruption in top politicians. Whilst an extremely serious example of the repercussions that can happen, it's another to add to the growing number of stories of people falling foul of their social media presence.

People seem to think that because they have been given a platform (or several) to express their views that they can just open up and let the world know with little or no thought to the results it may bring. It's like sitting in a bar and talking loudly, there are lots of people there to hear you and it's a great way to reach a large audience, but saying the wrong thing there can lead to some nasty reactions too. As they say in Glasgow, "many a man's mouth has gotten his nose broken."

Any post on a platform runs the risk of offending someone or breeching rules or laws. That risk grows greater when you consider the numbers on some of the social media platforms are in the millions and even billions. Many companies and organisations have recognised this and implemented social media policies to regulate their employees/members with simple conditions like "do not bring the company into disrepute online." Whilst this may work for them, where does it leave the private individual, the one who claims the right to "freedom of speech" or the right to "express their opinion"? In short, at the mercy of the world!

Anyone can sign up for a social media account (with a few exceptions in some countries and platforms on age, and certain criminal activity cases, prison, etc.); there is no IQ test or social/political screening before anyone posts, tweets, replies, or comments online. It's an individual account and therefore it's up to the individual to educate and regulate themselves to operate legally, safely, and even humanely whilst managing their online presence. The problem there is that we don't; we blaze through our social media lives without a care until we run across our first bad reaction. It might not be on our own accounts, but soon enough a story or tale will appear of some oblivious soul that thought they could do or say what they wanted with no comebacks. The council worker that tweeted the anti-disability/homophobic/racist tweet or the 16-year-old that posted a video whilst they abused their employer's trust and violated a customer's food, it's the same story again and again. The same excuses too; they were just expressing an opinion or didn't realise people could see whatever stupid thing they did. It always goes the same way, there's a reaction that becomes public and soon a social media mob with pitchforks is banging at the company/organisation's door (because they too have a social media presence that means everyone can get in touch with them too) and they have to deal with an individual's actions reflecting on them. Said individual is always then either "investigated" or "removed" from the organisations with the usual reassurances the individual's actions were not in line with the company/organisation's core beliefs or activities (honestly, it's the same scripted format every time; check United Airlines after "the doctor" incident and you'll see).

So it's obvious to us all that there are things to be avoided when posting online, but we still all do it! Is there a fundamental failure to accept that it could happen to us? (I got mine out the way very early on just after Facebook started to become mainstream with the company I worked for at the time). Is it like speeding on the motorway (highway if you're American); everyone else is doing it so it must be fine for me to do it too, or is it really a lack of social understanding within the individual that just comes through on social media? The basic knowledge that anything we say can be used against us in the court of the world and often with much more violent reactions than a company's slap on the wrist. Just because we've been given these platforms to churn out our opinions on the world, it doesn't mean we should or we shouldn't care what we say. It's still like sitting in that bar—watch what you say! Having a president with a lack of filters online might be endearing some of his supporters, but when he's trading twitter barbs with a guy whose country banned twitter and a matching touchy attitude, that could lead to a hell of a bar fight. It goes doubly so when you're sharing the "bar" with a guy with his finger on a button not dissimilar to the own you boast of having—that's one "send" button none of us want pressing.

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About the Creator

john harrison

Media graduate, social media content creator, photographer, videographer, artist. Love gaming, traveling and showcasing the world to everyone. Based in UK but travel the world as much as possible, its too interesting to not explore it all!

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