Twitter twats
I’ve been thinking a lot about the recent arrest of an unnamed 17-year-old who heckled and threatened 18-year-old British Olympic diver Tom Daley on Twitter. After criticizing the athlete’s fourth-place finish in the 10-meter synchronized diving contest, user @Rileyy_69 then directed a message with a more menacing tone: “I’m going to find you and I’m going to drown you in the pool...”
By all accounts, the teen may have just been a garden-variety attention-seeking idiot who had the amazing luck of actually getting a reply, so the police investigation and its attendant media coverage seem ridiculous in hindsight. On the other hand, such harassment falls under the Malicious Communications Act 1988 in the UK. The law covers letters, telecommunications or any form of electronic communication, including messages posted on the Internet and social networking sites.
While being an insensitive prick isn’t a crime, announcing one’s intention to kill someone is, whatever the medium. There are simply too many people who abuse the anonymity of the Internet to say whatever the hell they want in the mistaken guise of free speech, showing that he or she can be the nastiest, most unfeeling bastard or bitch in the free world. Examples should be made of trolls like this charming Twitter bully; racists should be next.
#Jeah!
“The number of Twitter users has grown exponentially since the Beijing Olympics in 2008: from 2 million registered users to more than 140 million active users today,” according to The Guardian. This includes 400 million tweets each day — up from around one million a day in 2008.
27-year-old US Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte, for instance, has used the microblogging site to sway public perception. Through a sequence of offbeat tweets fired a few hours after his loss in the 200m freestyle, the University of Florida graduate represents all that is great and horrible about his home country: He’s a sporty, fun-loving and good-looking bro who is possibly as stupid as a box of hair.
Aside from his catchphrase “Jeah!” — the interjection was culturally relevant in 2006 — and his defeat of rival Michael Phelps, his active Twitter account has been part of quite a few storylines from the 2012 London Olympics. The Tumblr Ryan Lochte Tweets has compiled the most bizarre missives of the lot in their poorly spelled, illogical glory: “Can u catch lightening in a bottle and set the water on fire?”; “everyone is selling dreams until u can buy one”; and a personal favorite, the soon-to-be iconic “Rocks, paper, siccor…” Jeah!
‘Borned in Kenya’
When you put your thoughts out there, you will be mocked and chastised if said thoughts are blatantly offensive. House of Representatives President Jenniffer González, Puerto Rico’s most powerful female lawmaker, knows this firsthand. She is in hot water after one of her advisers sent a series of racist tweets to President Barack Obama.
“Who cares? Take her to Burger King, buy her a sundae with double banana, take her to your homeland, Kenya!” replied Heidi Wys to the US leader’s message that Michelle Obama’s birthday was coming up. Completely tossing politesse out the window, she went on with the following gem: “Wah! Wah! I feel like vomiting. Dinner with a guy borned in Kenya and claims he was borned in Hawaii!” If right-wingers want people to stop calling them racists, they need to stop making racially-charged remarks, plain and simple.
Since its inception in 2006, Twitter has become the most convenient and popular venue for people to connect and interact with each other in real time. Celebrities and politicians employ it to mingle with the masses, bypassing PR handlers and sidestepping marketing Svengalis. The words on Brooklyn artist Joe Newton’s 2011 letterpress poster, “Google Before You Tweet is the new Think Before You Speak,” are damned good advice. You’d assume this would be the standard these days, but it’s a shame that a lot have yet to heed this piece of straightforward Web wisdom.
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ginobambino.tumblr.com.
