Yesterday
Yesterday, first-hand, I saw Twitter achieve two apparent results for civility. In the morning, I posted a tweet drawing attention to an online report of a tube official seemingly humiliating an elderly passenger who had his arm caught in a door. A little while later I RTd (‘re-tweeted’: passed on) Charlie Broker’s strongly-worded thoughts on Jan Moir’s unpleasant article of dailymailia. The latter was then picked up by Stephen Fry, and by the end of the day it had gained such widespread awareness that both stories had made the evening news. The tube official was investigated under pressure from Boris Johnson and received a suspension, and Moir issued a statement saying she was a victim of an orchestrated campaign.
Moir’s interpretation was wrong, and betrays a misguided notion about the nature of Twitter and similar forms of networking. There is no orchestration – just the rapid spread of information. Tweets (posts) are passed on, word gets around, and when a Twitter giant like Stephen Fry mentions it, a million people hear and many pass it on themselves. The response to Moir’s article came from areas much further than the Twittersphere, and although the accusation made was one of homophobia, her critics were not defined by sexuality. Ads were withdrawn from her online article, a strong critical voice was heard, and the Daily Mail became mortal for half a day. If the Mail exists to motivate the small-minded complaining communities of outraged middle England, for once it had a clear voice of outrage hurled back at it.
I hope that the tube official was fairly investigated and deserves his suspension. And that the complaints lodged against Moir have a worthwhile effect. As vast numbers shun print and turn to the net for their news, yesterday sounded an interesting note: an infamous newspaper held to account by a sharp, informed, conscientious public. It may even be a first. I did not know Gately, but there was time when he feared the press ‘outing’ him. If his passing has caused this familiar form of mawkish, snide journalism to be held to account, then perhaps we could see that as a tribute to him. And to the astonishing impact of Twitter, and the shared decency of its users.
DBx
“Here Here” [tingly sense of the exhilarating joy of justice flowing through my veins]
Lovely.
All for fighting the good fight, but the venom produced as a result to the point of wanting her dead is sadly not supporting. Have never read so much profanity since. Make aware & Complain yes, it’s the decent thing to do. But to stir hate is not.
Thank you…
Love & Light x
Those two events certainly demonstrate what a positive force that Twitter – and the internet in general- can be. People get away with nasty bullying disguised as “doing their job” everyday;and the Daily Mail gets away with vile, hateful articles everyday.For once they have been called out on it.
As for “orchestration”, was it not the Daily Mail who orchestrated the vendetta against Jonathan Ross and Russel Brand, and the BBC?
Nice article. Reminds me of the Richard Littlejohn online poll about travellers. Glad to see the Daily Nazi get another good kicking.
Well put Derren
Yes I have come across ‘Twitterphobia’ before.
People [on the outside] Non-tweeple shall we say, tend to look down on it as some kind of misguided joke, a thing for dossers, tossers, layabouts & nerdo-wells, with nothing better to do that fondle their smartphone of choice and publish up to the minute drizzle (so they say)
One should never underestimate the power of the public vote.
People in the public eye really need to be awfully careful about what they say & do, as it will very quickly be brought to light and their actions frowned upon if they are in the wrong, which in this case is blatantly true
Twitter rocks!
Totally agree with every word, Derren. We all did awesome.
“her critics were not defined by sexuality.”
No they were defined by being celeb worshiping sheep desperate to try and catch the attention of Fry, hoping their sad little lives will be finally have a meaning because Fry retweets something they’ve said.
Well said indeed. I found yesterday to be an interesting experience, watching the anger build on Twitter (reflecting my own) and then seeing the results and effects of that anger reported back by the media. I imagine that’s the closest I’ll feel to being in a political riot, a silly comment, I know, but true nonetheless.
The DM feeling victimised a tad? Love it, literally LOVE IT.
True, all true…
Twitter is like a snowball sometimes.
p.s- I saw at the top of the page the header
‘All your minds are belong to us’
Changed around ‘All your base are belong to us’?
Winner (Y) 😛
I lodged a complaint about the Jan Moir article as soon as I read it that morning, still not quite believing that such bile could make it to ‘print’. I thought it mightn’t do much good, but I had to at least try to make my voice heard. I assumed that would be the end of it, but I spent the rest of the day watching in amazement as others learned of the outrage and twitter, facebook and other sites all came together in a united showing of disgust and protest against the daily mail. It was a fantastic movement to be part of. Thank you for taking time to help. xox
Huzzah!
About time the daily mail heard from the people who rightfully detest it.
While I approve of your sentiments, can I point out that it’s clear from your quoted timings that your good self and messrs Fry and Brooker were far from the first to spot either the tube-incident or the ghastly Ms Moir’s vile bigotry. I’m a huge fan of the work of all three of you, but both matters were brought to your attention by ordinary citizens already virally disseminating the information. Obviously your fan-bases helped increase the spread, but at the same time, they help support the myth that the campaign was ‘mischievously orchestrated’. With respect, you were a small part of a popular moment of dissent, not its leaders.
Having read Moirs article and re read it I would like to say this. MOIR: you are a tatty, cheap, sorry excuse for a member of the human race. I will say no more but follow my fellow humans example in the treatment of Jade Goody when she spoke out on big brother. And that is to silently, with MY dignity in tact, turn my back to you. And when I turn round again expect nothing less than your existence to be nothing more than a ugly yet faded stain on the pages of yesterdays news. A talentless tactless silly excuse of a journalist, who will fade into obscurity taking with her any pompous notion that she was in the right.
*Faces Away*
Did you ever think you’d be explaining anything at all about how Twitter works? But now, here you are.
Excellent blog, a great response to Ms Moir’s bleatings.
I was totally disgusted by Jan Moir’s piece but equally as guilty are the editors who approved it for publication. Anyone with half a brain cell could see that this piece was incenderary. While it is clear that the Daily Mail have a pretty negative editorial policy (I have experienced this first hand myself) it is difficult to believe that there was not one person with a shred of decency in the editorial food chain that saw this vile article make it into the publication. Ironically Paul Dacre, the eidtor of the Mail is head of the PCC so I imagine many of our complaints will fall on deaf ears. Total conflict of interests on his part.
Interesting to see on the Mails site today a story having a dig at celebs who twitter. It looks so thrown together not to mention a couple of inaccuracies it can only be a knee jerk response to yesterdays flurry of Tweets attacking them.
Hear hear Derren,…Yesterday had a sad, scared, angry and disgusted vibe all over it, …and the day ended indeed in a sense of restored dignity…let this indeed be a little tribute…
so proud of everyone, and especially a few!
Xx
A day that shows how the internet can be a crusading force for good. Hurrah for you and for Stephen Fry too.
Thank you Derren. I’m not so good with the written word but you, Charlie and Stephen yesterday and today have helped me realise that good always overcomes bad.
After watching Mr Gately’s funeral…he would be proud that us sane people are there to put into place that goodness. These nasty lot HAVE to be stopped and shown up for who they are.
Not that it makes any difference but I’m a straight woman of 40 with one Daughter aged 18…I have bought her up without god but to embrace all regardless of race, ability, gender or sexuality. I’m proud to say she sees all as equal and so do a lot of her friends. Bless you Derren.
Sarah
Well put. I did not see your Tweets yesterday, but I had seen some on the DM from other folks I follow in the UK.
Ms. Moir’s comment about being “orchestrated” really shows her lack of understanding of how social networking, and for that matter news on the internet is spread.
Twitter = Howard Beale from the film Network. Hopefully multinational companies and national media outlets realise now that they can’t spoon feed us perfidy they way they used to.
Beautifully put as always Derren. xx
HURRAH! 🙂
Getting a tube worker suspended is a ‘victory’ when there has been no investigation and we have no idea what happened before the recording? It is a fact that the worker lost his temper and acted in an inappropriate way but its also a fact that his target obstructed closing doors of a train despite all the warnings not to (which breaks a by law) and then refused to wait behind the yellow line therebye endangering himself and other passengers.
People who work on the Underground tend to take these things more seriously than the passengers, mainly because we have to deal with the horriffic incidents these actions cause.
I barely even understood Twitter until 2 weeks ago. This week I have seen 3 examples of exactly why it is a good thing – because it allows your voice to be heard.
And Jan Moir needs to understand what a real apology is. Her pathetic excuse for one is almost as shameful as the original article.
Derren, you’re so lovely. 🙂 I am glad I came home early yesterday, otherwise I may have missed all this. Thank you for sharing those stories, which I tried to share as much as I could too, as both were simply unacceptable. I’m glad I played my small role, and both those people got what they deserve. 🙂 Thanks again!
And this is why I love the internet. Thank you, Derren. Thank you, all.
I am deeply aroused by your stirring words. I am a Man of few words, but I thank you.
Very well said Mr Brown. x
Howdi there,
The power of the internet is completely uncontrollable.
This reminds me of the instance of Dusty the cat earlier in the year. On A website, reknowned for its questionable content, 4chan, which has access to millions of users a day., A youtube link of a young man, kenny glenn, abusing a cat was posted.
Now this began a flurry of posts from users disgusted at the actons in the video. And by analysing his room, they found his facebook and myspace pages, learnt his address. And now he’s been prosecuted.
Google search kenny glenn or dusty the cat to find the story. I find it amazing how he was caught .
Loved the post D,
SM xx
Voting so far seems to suggest the public at large think Jan Moir is a homophobic bigot. Latest Jan Moir vote results: BIGOT 8.7%, HOMOPHOBE 8.5%, BOTH 79.7%, NEITHER 3.1% – from http://www.votemoir.com
😀 🙂 😉
Amazingly put. 🙂
Nice to see there are people in the world that care enough to make a difference like this! Very proud!
Great to see twitter has that much impact.
Great blog!
Well said, Derren.
Sadly I don’t think the Mail is feeling the slightest sorry, or has any regrets.
Bravado anyone? http://tinyurl.com/yzeagmn
Publishing this just one day after Moir’s comments is distasteful to say the least, and I’d say certainly not a co-incidence.
Undoubtedly a victory for a more democratic and responsive medium. But there is a danger – from both the Mail response (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1220989/Twitter-twits-But-biggest-celebrity-twitterers-internet.html) and from avid twitterers – that the views are seen as being those of the communication channel. It would be like saying that radio offended Andrew Sachs or that newspapers were homophobic.
It is great to know that social networking tools such as Twitter can be used to unite the voices of like-minded individuals across the Internet. I hope that this serves to demonstrate the effectiveness of such techniques and that it gives people who have a) such phobic attitudes and opinions and b) access to mainstream media channels pause before attempting to express them in such an anti-social way again.
The technology of the 21st century can show up the bigoted and short-sighted opinions from the 20th century and before. Well done on helping reason and equality to come to the fore in both of these cases.
I only joined Twitter the day before yesterday, and the events you have described made me realize just how powerful it could be. More than just a social networking site, it is a real and very effective form of democratization.
Your role yesterday deserves admiration. You, and all who worked with you, did so much good.
But is saddening, and more than a little troubling, that Moir’s latest statement shows so little apology for what she has done.
see how simple it is for you to spread words/news? this is popularity, it has a lot of weird effects like the one that very many people believe what you are saying. combined with the twitter-phenomenon this is what happens.
you just write something and it magically appears in the evening news…
Beautifully put, Derren. And ‘beautifully put’ everybody else who filed complaints about that gossiping old crone with the Rod of Arrogance jammed firmly up her arse. Other than being insensitive, homophobic, insulting to the Gately family, and also very poorly written, her article was also based on lies (Stephen Gately was by no means a drug-abusing, heavy-drinking sex-addict, everybody has said so!) Next she’ll be saying that his heart condition was caused by AIDS (I’ve heard someone say that before about a bisexual actor who died in 1995.) Why are stupid people allowed to write???
P.s. Charlie Brooker’s article was excellent! 😀
test
It is intersting that this journalist feels she is the victim of an orchestrated campaign. Did it not occur to her that not all DM “readers” are white middle class heterosexuals?
Would she have made similar insensitive comments against muslims? I think not.
She clearly, as most journo`s do, believed she was in an ivory tower where she was impervious to the consequences of her jaded hackery.
“Are you thinking what she`s thinking?”…..evidently not……..
What cheek How dare Moir claim to be a victim of a campaign. That is exactly what she was trying to start with her barely concealed hatred of gay relationships and this woman spews her bile all over the press. It just confirms my view that newspapers are a criminal waste of trees.
New to Twitter just a week ago, I watched this and the Carter-Ruck thing play out. Astonishing. I very much agree with your sentiments and the phenomenon is certainly enouraging.
well done Derren on both counts
I love you x
“Take That” Daily Mail!
Well put ! It makes you think about the balance of things.X