So, obviously all eyes this week have been on the Olympics, and it’s interesting how much this event celebrating sporting achievements has penetrated into the news and issues around tech.
Twatts Tweeting
Numerous celebs have taken to Twitter as a way of connecting directly with fans. However, recently there has been a spate of instances, often involving sporting stars, where the fans have been outshouted by the haters. A teenager was arrested after abusing diver Tom Daley (as was a footballer who seems to have mislaid his phone and paid the price). But the barrage of abuse proved too much for BBC presenter Helen Skelton after she became the target for volleys of anonymous abuse.
As The Guardian says:
Twitter declined to comment about abusive behaviour on its social network. The company, which describes itself as the free speech wing of the free speech party, has said it does not monitor or intervene in messages posted by its 140 million active users
But in another story that Twitter could probably have done without, it turned out that sometimes people at Twitter do monitor users and report them if they don’t like what they were doing. Some rather overblown tweets, and the publication of a corporate executive’s work email, saw journalist Guy Adams being suspended from Twitter after one of its employees contacted NBC and told them they should complain about him.
Both of these things happened in the same week that the man who was charged after making a bad joke about an airport on his Twitter account had his conviction overturned, and that an anonymous user pretending to be a senior media executive won his battle to have his details remain secret. All of which just goes to show that no-one yet quite knows the true power of Twitter, or how it should be handled. Including, it would seem, Twitter itself.
I know I normally cover a couple of stories a week, but to be honest, this week I’ve mainly been watching the Olympics (Go Wiggo!) or planning a trip to London (I’m leaving in two minutes).
And, to be honest, I wanted to end on a rather sombre note: in an horrible incident in the week that Britain celebrated a number of cycling medals, a young cyclist died after he was dragged under an Olympic bus just outside the main Olympic park. As if to prove how ridiculously small the world is, he worked at Moo, as do people I know, and his girlfriend works for our sister agency Mediacom. RIP @gecko84.
My silly english boy, the love of my life, my boo. I don't know how to live without you @gecko84 pic.twitter.com/nxIYFbnG
— Cecilia Dominici (@ceciliadom) August 2, 2012
Bike by Peter J Trimming on flickr