Twitter abuse scandal - what do you think...?

[Ekona]

It might be, but equally it might not be. Context is everything.

[coldel]

On the issue of 'offended on behalf of' -

 

Was something in the Metro this morning of a white guy who won compensation from an employer because he was offended on behalf of a fellow black employee who the employer constantly referred to as a 'golliwog'.

 

When he raised it as an issue on behalf of the other employee who wouldn't complain he was dismissed. He won something like £20k and the employer after the verdict still felt she was in the right and it was all blown out of proportion.

 

...the intelligence thing raising its head offline as well as on

[rtbiscuit]

context is everything

[DoogyRev]

Someone calls me a bald **** at work, I laugh but someone else gets offended on my behalf WTF

 

I would be offended on your behalf Dave, I think thats an awful thing to say to you

 

Speak to you on FT soon Baldy

[AK350Z]

I too was also bemused and worried that the possible appearance of a third woman on a banknote brought out a load of frothing lunatics.

[coldel]

Someone calls me a bald **** at work, I laugh but someone else gets offended on my behalf WTF

 

I would be offended on your behalf Dave, I think thats an awful thing to say to you

 

Speak to you on FT soon Baldy

 

Context is everything!

[rtbiscuit]

most major things in this country are decided by the minority that shout the loudest. as the majority are too ill informed or don't care to do anything about it. our govenrments are voted in by minorities as only 35% of the nation voted in the last 3 elections each time the majority vote only actually counts for about for less than 10% of the population. new laws and regs are brought in because miority groups make the most noise about it. its only when something jumps up and bites us in the arse that everyone gets outraged. and even then minority groups go and do something stupid. the lee rigby murder is a prime case.

Edited August 5, 2013 by rtbiscuit

[docwra]

It doesn't "really concern" me mate. I started the thread because I was really interested in why people think some men felt so angry at a woman for wanting to see a famous woman author on a bank note - it's more that I'm interested in the psychology of the behaviour than this being a particular issue of importance to me.

 

Why? Probably because as far as they are concerned it is just "banter" - not very nice Ill grant you but I cant honestly imagine they are so unhappy they would destroy a womans life and accept a 15 stretch. Replace "rape" with "savagely beat" and you arent far off what I say Ill do to Roy Hodgson if he plays that donkey James Milner again, if Id had a couple of pints Id be tempted to tweet it to him as well

 

If you want to see real abuse, check out @piersmorgan's timeline, I dont recall him crying about it though.

Edited August 5, 2013 by docwra

[StevoD]

personally i think we should all campaign for mr blobby to be on it anyway

[AliveBoy]

personally i think we should all campaign for mr blobby to be on it anyway

https://twitter.com/mr_blobby

[sipar69]

No offence mate (!) but you're missing the point. Saying down the pub or online "I would like to hit so and so" is not a threat.

 

well it is

 

Note the following is fictional im not a rapist.

So for arguments sake lets say 'im down the pub i see a girl and say rather openly i would love to rape her' Or i post on a girl i knows facebook wall ' i would love to rape you'

 

How is that not a threat

 

Interesting question. A threat is an expression of intent but you could probably get into trouble for saying you would like to rape someone if the person reported you and b. the CPS decided that you intended to commit the rape etc. Conviction would be unlikely I expect.

 

"Section 4 Public Order Act - Fear or Provocation of Violence

 

A person is guilty if he either

 

a) uses towards another person threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or

b. distributes to another person any writing or sign which is threatening, abusive or insulting

 

and either

 

i) he intends to cause that person to believe that immediate unlawful violence will be used against him or another by any person or to provoke such immediate violence, or

ii) it is likely that the person will believe that such violence will be used against him, or it is likely that such violence will be provoked."

Edited August 5, 2013 by sipar69

[Stutopia]

I'm not precious about the gender of our bank note faces but I do think it's important to have some female representation on stuff like that. There aren't enough female role models in the public eye for young girls to look up to IMHO, they're usually either prancing around on TV half dressed, in lads mags undressed or in the tabloids getting slated for being too fat/thin. I think it's important, particularly young, girls can see women who made it into the public eye for something not body image related.

 

As for the people who tweet rape threats, it's good that Twitter and FB allow these people to be so easy to identify, most of the clowns won't even bother having fake accounts or masking IP addresses, so even our Police should be able to find them. There's plenty of laws in place already to punish these people if the Police can be bothered. In my experience it's only people with no argument that resort to abuse and threats, their fists work faster than their brains.

 

As for freedom of speech, Facebook and Twitter are not platforms for free speech. As with most platforms (like forums) they have terms of use and you agree to abide by them when you sign up. Tweeting rape threats is not a freedom of speech issue. If you want to exercise your freedom of speech then host and develop your own website and put it on there and you can say whatever you want, but no one will hear you.

[spursmaddave]

The trouble is unfortunately although all of us on this thread are intelligent enough and witty enough to be able to put each other down in a cutting but clever way..... the average Jeremy Kyle participent is not, it doesn't need overkill but it does need some sort of regulating and policing for want of a better word

[NeilMH]

The question I find myself asking is would you knowingly associate yourself with or have a friendship with a person who writes the really dodgy stuff? If you found out someone you knew had written overtly threatening comments or similar how would you feel about them?

 

I personally don't think it is like pub banter...that is done with people you know or can at least attempt to read as well as you can through immediate responses, body language etc....adjusting accordingly if you think you are just about to receive an upper cut.

[rtbiscuit]

if i knew someone who was making those kind of comments i'd tell them they're being a complete feckwit and depending on who it was i'd probably give them a slap as well

[NeilMH]

if i knew someone who was making those kind of comments i'd tell them they're being a complete feckwit and depending on who it was i'd probably give them a slap as well

 

That seems like a very appropriate response to me....if they're lucky.