Social media shaming. We’ve all seen it. The crowd piles into an unsuspecting celebrity, or sometimes a mere mortal, telling them what they have done is wrong, why it’s wrong, and just how awful a person they are for saying it. There are, frankly, too many examples of such things to start naming them here, and many interesting people have given up online services as they simply can’t be bothered dealing with it anymore.

Interestingly, in an era in which technology is supposed to be breaking down norms, we see the crowds on social media becoming ever more (small c) conservative. Look at how Twitter users reacted to those who, mistakenly or otherwise, tweeted at 11 o’clock on Remembrance Sunday. The guardians of the Twitterati had declared that there was to be a two minute Twitter silence, and anyone who broke this nice but entirely unenforceable ideal was hounded appropriately at 11.02 and three seconds. Read More »

A hedge fund analyst in New York City, Shashank Tripathi, apologised last night for posting fake Hurricane Sandy news updates on Twitter. Tripathi who uses the Twitter handle @ComfortablySmug sent out a series of fake tweets claiming more dire news about the storm hitting New York City.

One tweet about a floor of the New York Stock Exchange being flooded was widely retweeted. He also falsely claimed that an energy company, Con Ed, was cutting services to all of Manhattan.

The fake Tweets were not an isolated incident. Fake pictures were also rife. The image here? That’s not from Hurricane Sandy. This scary looking shot of waves battering the Statue of Liberty turned out to be production art from the disaster movie ‘The Day After Tomorrow’. Read More »

It’s been a good week for Twitter outrage, but a bad week for the people at the centre. Diver Tom Daley has been on the receiving end of some vicious tweeting; a journalist for the Independent was chucked off Twitter for criticising NBC over shoddy Olympics coverage (though since reinstated), and a 17 year-old has been picked up from a guesthouse, arrested  and given a harassment warning as the presumed sender of the abusive tweets to Daley.

Perhaps it seems odd to include the alleged perpetrator of the abusive tweets in the ‘bad week’ round up. But I’m not the only person wondering if arrest seems a little extreme. Read More »

UPDATE - So the day after the Twitter furore involving Grace Dent comes news of her new role at The Independent. Coincidence or PR stunt?

Many seem to be asking that question today. Some are saying well done to Dent who looks like a great addition for the Independent while others are expressing disappointment. Read More »