Monday, July 27, 2020
Boycotting Twitter
I have joined countless other people in a 48 hour boycott of Twitter because of their failure to deal with anti-Semitism on their site. The boycott has arisen because of anger over anti-Semitic posts by grime artist Wiley.
The series of anti-Jewish comments made online by the musician was one of a number of incidents which also include the torrent of abuse faced by the former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott and racist posts about the footballers Wilfried Zaha and David McGoldrick, none of which Twitter acted quickly enough to take down.
The Guardian reports that Twitter's inaction has been condemned by Home Secretary Priti Patel, whi is quoted as saying the posts from Wiley were “abhorrent” and that she had asked Twitter and Instagram why they had been allowed to remain up for almost 12 hours. “Social media companies must act much faster to remove such appalling hatred from their platforms,” she said:
Ministers have said the online harms bill, unveiled as a landmark piece of legislation after teenager Molly Russell killed herself after viewing self-harm images online, will be brought to parliament as soon as possible.
However, DCMS minister Caroline Dinenage told a Lords committee last month she could not commit to a draft bill appearing even next year, saying the coronavirus pandemic had led to delays in the work. In a Lords report, peers said that could mean it would not be implemented until 2024, seven years after first being proposed.
Whether the protest will have any effect on Twitter and make them act more quickly has yet to be seen, but surely they must realise that if they are not perceived as a safe space then usage will fall, and so will their profits.
The series of anti-Jewish comments made online by the musician was one of a number of incidents which also include the torrent of abuse faced by the former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott and racist posts about the footballers Wilfried Zaha and David McGoldrick, none of which Twitter acted quickly enough to take down.
The Guardian reports that Twitter's inaction has been condemned by Home Secretary Priti Patel, whi is quoted as saying the posts from Wiley were “abhorrent” and that she had asked Twitter and Instagram why they had been allowed to remain up for almost 12 hours. “Social media companies must act much faster to remove such appalling hatred from their platforms,” she said:
Ministers have said the online harms bill, unveiled as a landmark piece of legislation after teenager Molly Russell killed herself after viewing self-harm images online, will be brought to parliament as soon as possible.
However, DCMS minister Caroline Dinenage told a Lords committee last month she could not commit to a draft bill appearing even next year, saying the coronavirus pandemic had led to delays in the work. In a Lords report, peers said that could mean it would not be implemented until 2024, seven years after first being proposed.
Whether the protest will have any effect on Twitter and make them act more quickly has yet to be seen, but surely they must realise that if they are not perceived as a safe space then usage will fall, and so will their profits.
