Introduction
Social media can be a constructive tool for reaching out to friends and family, celebrating important events in your life, posting photographs from birthdays and holidays and commenting on various issues and events as they happen. However, as the recent unrest across the country has shown, it can be destructive when in the wrong hands. Some people choose to abuse this innovation, peddling lies their conspiracy theories and posting hateful posts that are not only profoundly hurtful but are met with disgusting comments when they are challenged. This can affect anyone at any time in their life. It can profoundly affect those that it targets and leave them with long-lasting mental scars. These small-minded views come from people who spend too much time on social media and worryingly believe the opinions they are peddling.
A Reset Required
Social media companies have a great responsibility, and when issues run out of control, they face the public’s and the media’s rage for allowing misinformation. For far too long, these companies have been slow off the mark in dealing with this, and despite various government interventions, they still have a long way to go to address this. When someone puts in a complaint to a social media company, it should be dealt with swiftly, and, if necessary, the individual who has posted, banned, and blocked from using this communication avenue should be dealt with swiftly. Yet, often, it shouldn’t even have to go this far. These companies need to have more stringent monitoring and removing posts when they are posted.
Leaving these posts to gain support or to be commented on only causes damage. It fuels negative feedback and causes a needless tsunami of vitriol and hurtful language. By all means, post your concerns about issues that affect you and others, but there is a red line, and when it hurts those who read it, then be prepared to be accused of being a bully and breaching social media guidelines. Social media is a brilliant tool when used for the right reasons, but a small minority choose to abuse this code of conduct. It shouldn’t be necessary for the government, police or other services to get involved in quashing these comments and reprimanding these individuals.
To light a tinderbox of mayhem, it only takes one account with many followers to post on something or add their support to it. The problem is that there aren’t the resources and legislation to clamp down on social media when it gets out of control. Sadly, it takes a significant situation to shine the spotlight on social media. We have seen a call for organised violence from some on social media, and it has caused groups to mass in cities and to end across our country in a coordinated fashion. The police may be there to deal with it when it occurs, but it puts a massive strain on police resources when these forces have been massively cut. This can’t just be a temporary call; it must lead to effective and long-lasting change
