I normally embark on these fustian tirades with some meteorological non sequiturs, then attempt to segue into the evisceration of my first victim with prose that strains at the very leash of credibility. Unfortunately, this month, the formula of my opening gambit has wreaked its sweet vengeance on my hindquarters with a rampant virulence – bloodily dashing my Panglossian sanguinity against the pleonastic wall of destiny. So, I hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive me for reversing my rubric by beginning with this paragraph of diversionary prolix, then gliding with muted insouciance into, “What the hell happened with the BBC Weather Twitter feed last month, eh?!”.
A group called the Syrian Electronic Army – a name that should strike fear into absolutely no-one – proudly attached their name to the bizarre hacking of several BBC Twitter accounts last month. The tweets themselves were a strange blend of innocuous pro-government propaganda peppered with pseudo-breaking news headlines with a much darker tinge: “Hazardous fog warning for North Syria: Erdogan orders terrorists to launch chemical weapons at civilian areas”. Luckily the mini-crisis was short-lived and the BBC had matters firmly back in hand within a couple of hours. The SEA have since targeted other Twitter feeds and websites with similar political messages, coincidentally proving themselves to be both pro-Assad and a pain in the ass.
Even though the most stringent security precautions are no protection from the vice-like tenacity of skilled hackers, some people don’t need any outside assistance in stitching themselves up good and proper. Rob Wilson MP provided a classic example of this oeuvre, by accidentally tweeting a pornographic link instead of a link to a Guido Fawkes blog about an Iain Duncan Smith interview. It was apparently down to some confusion with Conservative Campaign HQ (CCHQ) and was all very embarrassing, but highlights again the importance of checking and double-checking content before you send it out; there’s a big difference between a link to an upstanding member of Parliament and a link to an upstanding member.
Another fantastic idea from a more high-profile political personality was to join Twitter literally hours before announcing another raft of budgetary measures to heal our ailing economy. George Osborne and/or his advisers picked quite possibly the most ill-advised moment in time to set sail on the choppy waters of social media, and the predictable reaction was both brutal and amusing in equal measure.
[Image via: quickmeme.com]
Buried amongst the barrage of base insults he received, including invitations to express carnal love to a tiger and numerous reminders that he was in fact an unfeasibly large crowing barnyard animal, there were some slightly more considered responses too.
In other news, British boxer Curtis Woodhouse indulged himself in a little twigilante action, when he offered a £1000 reward to his followers if they could help locate the author of some offensive tweets in the aftermath of a recent loss.
His loyal fan-base literally fell over themselves to track down the perpetrator and after tweeting a picture of the road he lived in with the hashtag #itsshowtime, a grovelling apology ensued, soiled with the foul stench of fear, no doubt.
Considering how this particular episode played out, it’s easy to dismiss the rather unpleasant insinuation of violence contained within it, but whilst no harm came to the individual concerned, using a social media channel as a tool to enact some homespun justice offline, sets a very bad example to the easily-influenced. Surely a frosty silence or a well-crafted bon mot should be the preferred route to hushing one’s social media detractors, rather than pushing for a face-to-face confrontation and getting your followers to do the reconnaissance.
Some years ago when social media communities first started gaining traction, the image of avid forum-dwellers as self-loathing, fat, deviant sociopaths sweating offensively behind their monitors, was tacitly understood as an amusingly vituperative stereotype; however, a recently published paper in the Journal of Consumer Research states that the results of five studies show that increased social media use can lead to a marked increase in self-esteem. Unfortunately, this increase in self-esteem also leads to a decrease in self-control and lower concentration thresholds. The final study went on to discover that increased social media usage is also linked to higher body-mass index, credit card debt, binge eating and a low credit score. So, it seems that on the basis of these academic studies, the stereotype should be tweaked to show that social media users are, in fact, fat, bankrupt spendthrifts with chocolate round their mouths, who think they’re the most amazing thing since sliced bread! As this stereotype describes me to a tee, I think these studies are a load of rubbish! Anyway, on that note, I’m off out to get a payday loan, buy a massive packet of chocolate hobnobs and see if I can find a bra to tame my pendulous be-biscuited man-boobs.
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