I recently wrote a piece on twitter as a business tool. Over this last weekend (16/17th Oct) one of the folks I was following was subject to an unacceptable campaign from a so called commentator. Although not targetted directly at the individual, allegations were made against a family member. Whilst it was supposed to be a “joke”, it was inappropriate and probably libellous.
There followed a protracted thread which also involved the instigator receiving abusive tweets in response. Whilst not condoning the actions of these misguided, if well meaning folks, the person who kicked the whole thing off really had no axe to grind. Really sowing what she reaped.

Whilst there may be some out there who promote the freedom of speech thing, and people in the public eye are fair game, I, for one, do not believe that this should under any circumstance extend to theri families.

Social media sites such as Twitter do not have the benefit of moderators – unlike forums which were their predecessors. Any inappropriate postings were deleted and the ultimate sanction was barring from the forum. Although it ispossible to be debarred from Twitter, it doesn’t really happen sufficiently often and as a consequence these Cyber bullies can and do thrive.

I suppose it is up to us to police our Tweets and to unfloow anyone who becomes abusive. Maybe then they will get the message.