Social Media caused the suicide of a politician?

tayto lover

dvpower wrote: »

Personally, I didn't see any of the instances of abuse that his brother was on about, but I've got no reason to disbelieve him - you don't need to look hard to see examples of online abuse directed towards politicians.
Whether this was a big factor leading to his suicide is another question altogether.
Whether we should do anything about it is also another question.



If there was ever a clear cut example of online abuse of a public official, it was that instance.
A woman, an official in Phil Hogan's department, was photographed having a drink with him at a conference. The photo was posted on this site and she was referred to here as a bit of fluff, a tart and 'his fancy bird'.

The woman is not a public figure, but a public servant. Apparently proximity to Phil Hogan made her fair game.

His hand appeared to be around her and she was lying into him in the picture. It was a natural conclusion for people to arrive at in fairness. If my wife saw me in a photo like that I'd be handed my head.

http://www.politics.ie/forum/fine-gael/196862-irish-daily-mail-breaking-big-story-minister-phil-hogan-94.html

tony81

tayto lover wrote: »

His hand appeared to be around her and she was lying into him in the picture. It was a natural conclusion for people to arrive at in fairness. If my wife saw me in a photo like that I'd be handed my head.

Agreed. They don't do themselves any favours. Bloated on wine and canoodling with junior staff members. I suppose it's just his way of marking the introduction of a property tax.

If only it took a few abusive tweets to make that wretch follow in the footsteps of minister what's-his-name.

dvpower

tayto lover wrote: »

His hand appeared to be around her and she was lying into him in the picture. It was a natural conclusion for people to arrive at in fairness. If my wife saw me in a photo like that I'd be handed my head.

http://www.politics.ie/forum/fine-gael/196862-irish-daily-mail-breaking-big-story-minister-phil-hogan-94.html

If you honestly think that it was a natural conclusion that the woman is a tart based on that photo then I'm very surprised.
If you think it was fair comment to make publicly about the woman then I'm completely flabbergasted.

tayto lover

dvpower wrote: »

If you honestly think that it was a natural conclusion that the woman is a tart based on that photo then I'm very surprised.
If you think it was fair comment to make publicly about the woman then I'm completely flabbergasted.

What was the comment? I didn't see it.

You have to remember that Phil Hogan is in Public Office and this was taken in Doha while he was representing us at a Climate Conference. He is either a very arrogant man or a complete fool to allow this type of photograph to be taken under those circumstances. This is worse than Cowan's supposidly drunken interview on Morning Ireland a few years ago. At least he was on his own.

dvpower

tayto lover wrote: »

What was the comment? I didn't see it.

She was called a tart. You yourself called her 'his fancy bird'.

tayto lover wrote: »

You have to remember that Phil Hogan is in Public Office and this was taken in Doha while he was representing us at a Climate Conference. He is either a very arrogant man or a complete fool to allow this type of photograph to be taken under those circumstances. This is worse than Cowan's supposidly drunken interview on Morning Ireland a few years ago. At least he was on his own.

I'm not talking about Phil Hogan here. I'm talking about the official in his department, apparently a married woman, who was subjected to this abuse.
I really can't understand why people chose to target her.

tayto lover

dvpower wrote: »

She was called a tart. You yourself called her 'his fancy bird'.


I'm not talking about Phil Hogan here. I'm talking about the official in his department, apparently a married woman, who was subjected to this abuse.
I really can't understand why people chose to target her.

Nobody knew who she was but she was caught in an uncompromising position and as such she left herself open to those comments. If she was on duty and working then she deserves the same criticism as Hogan.

If my company sent some of us on a training course and I was photographed with a colleague in the same pose as that then I would suffer by being punished by my company and probably my wife and deservedly so.

flutered

tayto lover wrote: »

Nobody knew who she was but she was caught in an uncompromising position and as such she left herself open to those comments. If she was on duty and working then she deserves the same criticism as Hogan.

If my company sent some of us on a training course and I was photographed with a colleague in the same pose as that then I would suffer by being punished by my company and probably my wife and deservedly so.

it seems that there are several high court writs bandied about, to prevent more pics being printed by the media, very interesting one has to admit.

Bichon Lover

TomOnBoard wrote: »

Further gossip. How long will it be before those "other rumours and suggestions" are aired here to cause even more distress?

Damien O'Reilly, filling in for Joe Duffy today, said he went to McEntee's funeral because he was "a gentleman", "lovely person" and the mainstream media all take this approach.

I know very little about the man but Social media gives us an alternative means of commentary.
Must there not be an inquest which may put some of the rumours to bed?

tayto lover

The latest episode in the attempt to stifle the media itself --

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2013/0104/1224328424174.html

Chips Lovell

How's he trying to stifle it? He's complaining about it, sure, but he isn't saying he's going to do anything about it?

tayto lover

Vladimir Kurtains wrote: »

How's he trying to stifle it? He's complaining about it, sure, but he isn't saying he's going to do anything about it?

I reckon he is. Why complain about something if you would not like to see that something changed? It seems to be just another step in that direction. I hear he was doing the same on Newstalk too and got very bad tempered.

spikethedog

tayto lover wrote: »

The latest episode in the attempt to stifle the media itself --

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2013/0104/1224328424174.html

I especially love this bit.

"I don’t think the media give a damn about where this is going to bring politics. It is worthy of some thought of where the constant denigration of politics is going to bring us,”

Where 'the media' is bringing politics?
That would be funny if it wasn't so totally disconnected from reality.

Chips Lovell

tayto lover wrote: »

I reckon he is. Why complain about something if you would not like to see that something changed? It seems to be just another step in that direction. I hear he was doing the same on Newstalk too and got very bad tempered.

What do you think he's going to do, exactly?

Good loser

Rabbitte is spot on. We are poorly served in this country by our current crop of journalists; it's whinge/whine/moan/rant from one end of the week to the other. Their negativity is depressing with not a constructive (or courageous) idea amongst them. Just like Sinn Fein tactics. The tenor is 'you should not be doing as you propose, you should be doing the opposite or something (anything?) else entirely different'.

Vincent Browne, our most prominent, is one of the worst hopping on every different bandwagon as it passes him by and often contradicting himself one week with another. He has the utmost respect for money when a Govt programme is being cut and none atall for it when its a question of raising taxes. I have never, ever, ever heard him admit that social welfare should be reined in or any single allowance should be reduced.

I supose his own background in business proves he has no understanding for how it survives and functions.

Equally abysmal as Browne are Fintan O'Toole and Gene Kerrigan.

hyperborean

Good loser wrote: »

Rabbitte is spot on. We are poorly served in this country by our current crop of journalists; it's whinge/whine/moan/rant from one end of the week to the other. Their negativity is depressing with not a constructive (or courageous) idea amongst them. Just like Sinn Fein tactics. The tenor is 'you should not be doing as you propose, you should be doing the opposite or something (anything?) else entirely different'.

Vincent Browne, our most prominent, is one of the worst hopping on every different bandwagon as it passes him by and often contradicting himself one week with another. He has the utmost respect for money when a Govt programme is being cut and none atall for it when its a question of raising taxes. I have never, ever, ever heard him admit that social welfare should be reined in or any single allowance should be reduced.

I supose his own background in business proves he has no understanding for how it survives and functions.

Equally abysmal as Browne are Fintan O'Toole and Gene Kerrigan.

They are a shabby lot professionally, I would agree and re-iterate that the current and recent Irish mainstream journalist pool is dreadfully inept and some of the blame for the state of the country should be landed at their door.

Thanks superman for social media or we would only have their rubbish to guide

hyperborean

On the flip side of the coin the article from todays indo

COMMUNICATIONS Minister Pat Rabbitte has described a series of offensive tweets posted about Senator Ronan Mullen as "deplorable" and "offensive".

The tweets, many of which were written by musical director of 'The Late Late Show', Jim Sheridan, contained words and images mocking Mr Mullen.

Fine Gael TD Tom Hayes, chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Communications and Energy which will carry out an investigation into cyberbullying later this month, criticised Mr Sheridan's tweets.

He said they were "a very personal attack" on the senator, which "humiliated and ridiculed" him.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/rte-probe-after-deplorable-tweet-attack-on-senator-3343073.html

is showing Rabbits real agenda, he is trying to stiffle anything to do with politicians even obvious satire, how can he pretend to stand up for the likes the smirking senator Mullan....

KyussBishop

Ya his criticism of journalism in Ireland didn't seem anything at all like a genuine criticism of real problems with their reporting, just a self-serving complaint against criticism of politicians in general, which is a regular enough complaint you hear from politicians in power in this country.

The problem is that journalists in Ireland don't criticize government adequately or nearly enough (and have a severe problem with the poor level of investigative journalism), not that they are criticizing too much or being 'too negative', which is a totally stupid criticism of journalism in this country, which requires a polar-opposite view of reality.

flutered

they would like to take things back to the 60s where one had only the independant or the irish press to read, depending on ones political viewpoint, then venting ones spleen by resorting to fisticuffs with the opposition, while the guys in power egged thing on with smart alec answers like fat phat and the enuch have given recently in the dail

spikethedog

Good loser wrote: »

Rabbitte is spot on. We are poorly served in this country by our current crop of journalists; it's whinge/whine/moan/rant from one end of the week to the other. Their negativity is depressing with not a constructive (or courageous) idea amongst them. Just like Sinn Fein tactics. The tenor is 'you should not be doing as you propose, you should be doing the opposite or something (anything?) else entirely different'.

Vincent Browne, our most prominent, is one of the worst hopping on every different bandwagon as it passes him by and often contradicting himself one week with another. He has the utmost respect for money when a Govt programme is being cut and none atall for it when its a question of raising taxes. I have never, ever, ever heard him admit that social welfare should be reined in or any single allowance should be reduced.

I supose his own background in business proves he has no understanding for how it survives and functions.

Equally abysmal as Browne are Fintan O'Toole and Gene Kerrigan.

We should go back to celtic 'tiger' style of journalism. Everything was better then and we were loaded, right?

Good loser

spikethedog wrote: »

We should go back to celtic 'tiger' style of journalism. Everything was better then and we were loaded, right?

The standard of journalism then was exactly the same as it is now. After all the same crowd are there still.

The absurd simplistic chorus from them before the election was that what we needed was a new Govt; two years later they are back at the same whinge-fest.

As I stated whine/whinge/moan/rant.

tayto lover

Good loser wrote: »

The standard of journalism then was exactly the same as it is now. After all the same crowd are there still.

The absurd simplistic chorus from them before the election was that what we needed was a new Govt; two years later they are back at the same whinge-fest.

As I stated whine/whinge/moan/rant.

Some of them don't like jokes or satire at all either --
http://www.krank.ie/category/opinions/jokes-will-be-outlawed-in-rabbittes-ireland/

hatrickpatrick

spikethedog wrote: »

I especially love this bit.

"I don’t think the media give a damn about where this is going to bring politics. It is worthy of some thought of where the constant denigration of politics is going to bring us,”

Where 'the media' is bringing politics?
That would be funny if it wasn't so totally disconnected from reality.

This part is even better:

“We have garnered some brownie points with our paymasters and our European partners. [The State’s] standing and Ministers’ undertakings are of value and are accepted.”

Says it all really. It's not the people who elected them and the people they "Represent" that they're concerned with garnering brownie points from. Democracy my hole.

hatrickpatrick

Oh and with regard to social media, the KPMG girl incident was raised in the Dail this morning by Mary Mitchell O Connor.
Looks like there really is a serious sh!t storm coming, those who care about freedom of the internet better batten down the hatches... It's becoming very obvious from the government's opportunistic raising of cyber bullying every time anything even remotely controversial happens on the internet, that they are intending to try and regulate the internet in some way, using "cyberbullying" as an excuse in the same way as "piracy" has been used an an excuse over in the 'States.

Scofflaw

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Oh and with regard to social media, the KPMG girl incident was raised in the Dail this morning by Mary Mitchell O Connor.
Looks like there really is a serious sh!t storm coming, those who care about freedom of the internet better batten down the hatches... It's becoming very obvious from the government's opportunistic raising of cyber bullying every time anything even remotely controversial happens on the internet, that they are intending to try and regulate the internet in some way, using "cyberbullying" as an excuse in the same way as "piracy" has been used an an excuse over in the 'States.

Yes, I think you're right there. I said on another thread that Fine Gael have both lived up to my expectations and lived down to them - the sense in which they have lived down to them has been through attempts at dangerous constitutional innovations, such as controlling judges' pay and trying to give themselves judicial powers. An attempt to stifle internet freedoms would be exactly in line with what I might expect - on the flip side, I doubt they'll let the newspaper licensing body try to shake down the digital economy, because that might be bad for business.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Going Forward

I have followed this thread but feel I have to ask:

What exactly was said about the deceased online which may have caused his death, or an indication of the types of comments?

Were they political or personal? Were they sent to his personal email, phone etc? How abusive were they?

If it is not correct or suitable to republish it, I understand, possibly someone could PM it?

Why am I asking? I've not seen any actual reference to where or what has been actually said and unless I'm mistaken the future of anonymous posting on something like boards.ie now seems under threat as a result.

K-9

Going Forward wrote: »

I have followed this thread but feel I have to ask:

What exactly was said about the deceased online which may have caused his death, or an indication of the types of comments?

Were they political or personal? Were they sent to his personal email, phone etc? How abusive were they?

If it is not correct or suitable to republish it, I understand, possibly someone could PM it?

Why am I asking? I've not seen any actual reference to where or what has been actually said and unless I'm mistaken the future of anonymous posting on something like boards.ie now seems under threat as a result.

My understanding is Boards isn't one of the sites mentioned so please don't post up links to other sites.

Going Forward

K-9 wrote: »

My understanding is Boards isn't one of the sites mentioned so please don't post up links to other sites.

Can I clarify: I do not want any insults perpetuated, but do wish to know the details of what is being discussed and claimed. Thanks.

thebman

The whole problem is the personal abuse argument is open to interpretation.

Pat Rabbitte was on the Frontline tonight and was talking a load of nonsense IMO.

Came out looking very bad. Until someone either in the high up civil service or government is seen to be held accountable for crazy economic policies then you can't expect people to trust the political system in this country.

Pat Rabbitte says we should trust by default because there is nothing better which sees idiotic to me. You should never trust politicians to do the right thing with the powers they have. Loads of examples of this going badly wrong in history books.

Question everything just in case is a much more realistic approach when your giving people the power that politicians have.

golfball37

This the same Pat Rabbitte who only weeks ago said "Shur everyone lies at election time". I'm afraid we can do a lot better than you and your lot Pat.

This social media angle sickens me tbh. Its purely a deflectionary tactic to hide away from their mis managemenet and greed. Whats worse is people have swallowed it hook line and sinker. Why isn't there a frontline programme about suicides arising from the economic crisis? I bet they outnumber social media suicides ten fold?

ednwireland

thebman wrote: »

The whole problem is the personal abuse argument is open to interpretation.

Pat Rabbitte was on the Frontline tonight and was talking a load of nonsense IMO.

Came out looking very bad. Until someone either in the high up civil service or government is seen to be held accountable for crazy economic policies then you can't expect people to trust the political system in this country.

Pat Rabbitte says we should trust by default because there is nothing better which sees idiotic to me. You should never trust politicians to do the right thing with the powers they have. Loads of examples of this going badly wrong in history books.

Question everything just in case is a much more realistic approach when your giving people the power that politicians have.

all i heard from rabbite was wah wah wah people are nasty to me, politicians should try keeping a few promises now and again (i know a shocking suggestion)

respect has to be earned

Bichon Lover

Going Forward wrote: »

I have followed this thread but feel I have to ask:

What exactly was said about the deceased online which may have caused his death, or an indication of the types of comments?

Were they political or personal? Were they sent to his personal email, phone etc? How abusive were they?

If it is not correct or suitable to republish it, I understand, possibly someone could PM it?

Why am I asking? I've not seen any actual reference to where or what has been actually said and unless I'm mistaken the future of anonymous posting on something like boards.ie now seems under threat as a result.

That is a fair question, but not for boards.ie: it is the accusers who should provide the information. All they have done so far is blame "social media" and when you look closely it is hard to believe some of them know what that is.

seamus

hyperborean wrote: »

On the flip side of the coin the article from todays indo

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/rte-probe-after-deplorable-tweet-attack-on-senator-3343073.html

is showing Rabbits real agenda, he is trying to stiffle anything to do with politicians even obvious satire, how can he pretend to stand up for the likes the smirking senator Mullan....

Worth bringing this up in the interests of fairness.

It turns out Rabbitte said nothing of the sort and instead the independent decided to twist his words to make it appear like he had an opinion on Jim Sheridan's tweets:
http://colettebrowne.com/2013/01/08/minister-pat-rabbitte-clarifies-his-remarks-about-jim-sheridans-offensive-tweets/

Scofflaw

seamus wrote: »

Worth bringing this up in the interests of fairness.

It turns out Rabbitte said nothing of the sort and instead the independent decided to twist his words to make it appear like he had an opinion on Jim Sheridan's tweets:
http://colettebrowne.com/2013/01/08/minister-pat-rabbitte-clarifies-his-remarks-about-jim-sheridans-offensive-tweets/

I see that she's taken that down temporarily to check quotes:

colettebrown wrote:

Talking down my Jim Sheridan post - quotes from the Minister have been queried and I need to check them out.

However, I wouldn't be particularly surprised - I think the newspapers are beginning a fightback against social media, so anything negative is going to get coverage, and any coverage will be negative. Possibly the beginnings of a press effort to push for various restrictions on social media?

cordially,
Scofflaw

Going Forward

Bichon Lover wrote: »

That is a fair question, but not for boards.ie: it is the accusers who should provide the information. All they have done so far is blame "social media" and when you look closely it is hard to believe some of them know what that is.

Mainstream media (print, tv etc) seems quite delighted to make a punchbag from their new digital competitors on the strength of some fairly oblique claims.

hatrickpatrick

I'm a little dismayed by the apparent lack of fightback. Where are the proponents of social media, particularly in political debate? Why are these claims that "social media causes suicide" and dubious examples of "cyber bullying" not being challenged in the mainstream? It seems to me that whenever statements such as Mary Mitchell O Connor's remarks in the Dail yesterday are made, you don't hear anyone (or at least, nobody being reported) challenging such statements and disagreeing with them...

Surely given how many people seem to agree with the idea of keeping the internet free and open, you'd expect there to be at least some level of pushing back. But it seems strangely absent.

hyperborean

seamus wrote: »

Worth bringing this up in the interests of fairness.

It turns out Rabbitte said nothing of the sort and instead the independent decided to twist his words to make it appear like he had an opinion on Jim Sheridan's tweets:
http://colettebrowne.com/2013/01/08/minister-pat-rabbitte-clarifies-his-remarks-about-jim-sheridans-offensive-tweets/

That's a disgrace, who would use a privileged position in mainstream media to form unsavory and incorrect opinions about a public figure?

>

Anyway its taken another turn, it seems The journo is standing by what she wrote and has forced the blogger to take down the post..

the waters are muddy on this

http://colettebrowne.com/

Clarification re Pat Rabbitte and “offensive” tweets
Posted on January 8, 2013 by colettebrowne
In a blog post earlier today I discussed an article in the Irish Independent on Saturday in which Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte described a series of tweets about Senator Ronan Mullen as “offensive” and “deplorable”.

The tweets in question, according to the piece, were primarily from @Jim_Sheridan, a freelance producer and musical director of RTE’s Late Late show. In one, he responded to a rather crass joke, when one user suggested the Senator be crucified with rusty nails, while in others he lampooned the Senator using photoshop to superimpose his face onto a number of religious and pop culture images.

Curious about whether the Minister had actually seen the tweets and, if so, which ones he found objectionable, I contacted the Minister’s office yesterday to discuss his comments. I did not speak to him directly but received this emailed response from a spokesman:

“I personally told the Irish Independent that I would not comment on any tweet I had not seen but that ‘I would deplore the use of offensive material from whatever source’ – which was by way of a reply to questioning about the place of employment of the person who posted the tweet.”

However, before I posted the blog I failed to contact the journalist who wrote the piece, senior features writer at the Independent, Gemma O’Doherty. She has informed me that, unlike me, she spoke personally to the minister before publication. She also states that at no point did he tell her he would not comment on a tweet he had not seen. During a documented interview, he described the tweets as dreadful, offensive and deplorable. She also confirmed that she had sent Mr Sheridan’s tweets to the Minister and, when I called the Minister’s office again this evening, this was confirmed.

Any unintended inference that the Irish Independent’s article was inaccurate is withdrawn and I apologise to Gemma O’Doherty in this regard

Is the blogger a bully? Or is the indo bullying her? or spiderman forbid there is no bullying in this mysterious case :eek:

Bichon Lover

As an aside, look at the website of the man whose Committee wants to investigate social media.
http://www.tomhayes.ie/blog/

Tom Hayes' main concern is reopening the toilet at Clonmel railway station and helping his constituents get "ham sangwiches" when they travel. Is this really what TDs are elected for?

I look forward to his incisive observations during the committee hearings! :rolleyes:

Going Forward

Bichon Lover wrote: »

As an aside, look at the website of the man whose Committee wants to investigate social media.
http://www.tomhayes.ie/blog/

Tom Hayes' main concern is reopening the toilet at Clonmel railway station and helping his constituents get "ham sangwiches" when they travel. Is this really what TDs are elected for?

I look forward to his incisive observations during the committee hearings! :rolleyes:

According to his site, the rest of us are mistaken thinking that child benefit has been cut:

It is important to note that the Government has taken no decisions on the Budget yet, and nothing is decided until everything is decided.


On the ball, keeps his site up to date anyway:)

Sir Oxman

Bichon Lover wrote: »

As an aside, look at the website of the man whose Committee wants to investigate social media.
http://www.tomhayes.ie/blog/

Tom Hayes' main concern is reopening the toilet at Clonmel railway station and helping his constituents get "ham sangwiches" when they travel. Is this really what TDs are elected for?

I look forward to his incisive observations during the committee hearings! :rolleyes:

Going Forward wrote: »

According to his site, the rest of us are mistaken thinking that child benefit has been cut:

It is important to note that the Government has taken no decisions on the Budget yet, and nothing is decided until everything is decided.


On the ball, keeps his site up to date anyway:)

Careful now!
Wouldn't want the above two posts to be construed as cyberbullying by the govt/old media/anyone else who wants clampdowns on a free and open internet.

Without a doubt, the big attempt at censorship is coming.

Scofflaw

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

I'm a little dismayed by the apparent lack of fightback. Where are the proponents of social media, particularly in political debate? Why are these claims that "social media causes suicide" and dubious examples of "cyber bullying" not being challenged in the mainstream? It seems to me that whenever statements such as Mary Mitchell O Connor's remarks in the Dail yesterday are made, you don't hear anyone (or at least, nobody being reported) challenging such statements and disagreeing with them...

Surely given how many people seem to agree with the idea of keeping the internet free and open, you'd expect there to be at least some level of pushing back. But it seems strangely absent.

People argue back on social media, but the mainstream media don't pick that up and publish it - which means it doesn't really get into the public eye.

Which is funny, really, when you think about what that means for the media's claims of social media pressure.

cordially,
Scofflaw

thebman

Scofflaw wrote: »

People argue back on social media, but the mainstream media don't pick that up and publish it - which means it doesn't really get into the public eye.

Which is funny, really, when you think about what that means for the media's claims of social media pressure.

cordially,
Scofflaw

This is what I've been saying, there is nothing wrong with anonymity on the Internet, the problem is with the media picking and choosing comments from anonymous people as facts or opinions from people without agendas or assuming they are from a group or party that they aren't.

The problem is really that the media doesn't know how to engage with social media. Until they work it out, they should just use comment from social media sites.

The VB show really gets away with it better than most by using choice comments from Twitter that it believes show the general trend of what is going on in its twitter feed during the show.

hatrickpatrick

Now the Irish Examiner joins the assault on anonymity:

http://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/fergus-finlay/sadly-abuse-by-the-anonymous-is-the-name-of-the-game-on-twitter-219569.html

Of course, totally failing to mention any of the positive aspects of it. Particularly amusing where he says it isn't compatible with democracy, without mentioning that anonymity in Arab Spring countries is what prevented people who were brave enough to publicly attack the regime from being rounded up and executed. :rolleyes:

Bichon Lover

Independent News and lots of local papers publish unsigned letters. You know the stuff - "name and address with editor".

What is the difference between this and people using a Pseudonym on social media?

oscarBravo

Bichon Lover wrote: »

What is the difference between this and people using a Pseudonym on social media?

The abusive language people feel they can get away with on social media?

Chips Lovell

The problem has never really been anonymity per se, but what people have used anonymity for.

The Indo doesn't publish anonymous death threats, for example.

(Of course, there's also the issue that most people aren't really anonymous as it stands at the moment anyway).

tayto lover

oscarBravo wrote: »

The abusive language people feel they can get away with on social media?

"Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me"

An old rhyme we used to recite at bullies/name-caller at school.
A T.D. should be above allowing things like that to effect him in fairness as he is an educated man or supposed to be. If he is not able to be above it then he should not be on social media.
Again there is more to this than we are being told. There is always more than one reason for suicide.

VinLieger

Wonder if all these journalists have a similar problem with people writing under pseudonyms? I somehow doubt it

oscarBravo

tayto lover wrote: »

"Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me"

I'm not convinced "harden the f*** up" is useful advice to the victims of online bullying.

Bichon Lover

tayto lover wrote: »

"Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me"

An old rhyme we used to recite at bullies/name-caller at school.
A T.D. should be above allowing things like that to effect him in fairness as he is an educated man or supposed to be. If he is not able to be above it then he should not be on social media.
Again there is more to this than we are being told. There is always more than one reason for suicide.

There is not a shred of evidence that social media contributed to Shane McEntee's suicide, his brother's rant set the whole thing off: the politicians and the commentariat think that if you repeat something often enough it becomes fact.
McEntee provoked people eg telling those whose care allowances were cut to suck it up. If you do that, you must expect retribution.
And there are rumours of another reason for his suicide coming from FG circles now.

tayto lover

oscarBravo wrote: »

I'm not convinced "harden the f*** up" is useful advice to the victims of online bullying.

I'm convinced that ignoring the f***ing thing is good advice though.