Whose side is Twitter on: misogynists or women in public life? | Suzanne Moore
With death and rape threats escalating, the social media network needs to do more. Just ask Jess Phillips
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. It’s the 21st-century proverb that also reflects our nonchalant attitude to social media. To those peculiar people to whom Twitter matters (in the UK an estimated 14 million) or who curate their pedicures on Instagram, or parade their holidays on Facebook, the relaxed riposte is: “None of this is real and everyone should calm down and do something meaningful.” Gardening? Reading novels? Talking to one’s own family? I have no idea.
While Carole Cadwalladr has exposed the enormous darkness within Facebook, the most toxic and overtly political of these platforms is Twitter. Everyone is talking about how our discussions are becoming increasingly polarised since Brexit. And it is on Twitter you see this most clearly, when antisemitism is expressed or Labour’s infighting is laid bare. But the biggest “polarisation” is that, to some, unadulterated woman-hating is still somehow permissible.