Tag Archives: social media fails

Socially Awkward Media: Politics and animal cruelty edition

Socially-awkward-mediaWrong Kennedy

Twitter users took to the social-media platform this week to ridicule and condemn former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, thinking he was the one who asked the FBI to change the classification on then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server. Some said he brought shame to his family name. That might be true, but it was a different Patrick Kennedy. The ex-Congressman, who’s the son of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, says he never served in the State Department. The Kennedy in question was Clinton’s aide when she was at Foggy Bottom.

Here’s a tip, Twitterverse: If you want to excoriate someone for writing emails that are later leaked, read said emails first so you know who should be the right target of your rage.

Does this count as voter fraud?

A Western Pennsylvania politician has gotten into trouble after a meme he posted on his Facebook page got the attention of state officials. Joshua Lorenz wrote a post that said, “Vote Hillary November 8th” and “You can vote at home comfortably online.” He said it was a joke. Get it?? Because voting online is impossible! Hi-larious!

Lorenz said his post was private and only meant to be shared with friends. But the state Department of State warned residents nonetheless that in Pennsylvania you can only vote via absentee ballot or at the polling place.

Facebook is a place to waste time, not perform your civic duty. Remember that.

Worst. Cat. Photo. Ever.

A Texas veterinarian got her license suspended after she posted to Facebook a photo of herself with a dead tomcat with an arrow through its head. The caption read: “My first bow kill. Lol. The only good feral tomcat is one with an arrow through it’s head! Vet of the year award … gladly accepted.”

Her lawyer said she wouldn’t have lost her license if not for social media. But it’s 2016. You should know better. And as a doctor, a presumably educated person, she should also know the possessive of “it” is “its,” with no apostrophe.

Facebook is forever

A Twitter executive is now a former Twitter executive due in part to a TechCrunch article that dug up one of his old Facebook posts. Greg Gopman had been at the social network for a few weeks when a story emerged this week of his previous activity on Facebook. In 2013, Gopman wrote a post critical of the homeless in San Francisco. He has since stopped complaining and started working on the problem. But that didn’t save him from losing his job.

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Socially awkward media: Fakery and deception edition

Socially-awkward-mediaAlgorithm and blues

Like many people I read lots of news on Facebook. But I don’t rely on Facebook to tell me the news, and I hope you don’t either.

The Washington Post reported this week that Facebook’s automated “Trending News” widget — the box on the right side of your Facebook page that tells you what topics are allegedly popular — continues to promote fake stories. This after the social network fired its staff of human editors in favor of algorithms that could determine popularity without the fallible human quality of judgment.

Or, apparently, skepticism. The Trending News widget continues to promote fake news stories, the Post reported. At least five fictional stories were found from Aug. 31 to Sept. 22, on top of news releases, blog posts and links to online stores.

Viral doesn’t mean real

Police in Wisconsin have been investigating the disappearance of a teenage girl since 2009. They thought they had a lead when they received hundreds of tips about a YouTube video showing a female who is apparently tied up and crying, apparently from the same year the teenager went missing.

Unfortunately — stop me if you’ve heard this before — it’s a fake.

The video received more than 900,000 views but the man who produced the video told police it had been staged. He apologized for the confusion and has since taken down the video.

 

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Socially Awkward Media: Fakery edition

Socially-awkward-mediaSend out the clown rumors

A Western Pennsylvania town had a minor clown panic because of a rumor started on a Facebook page. CBSLocal.com reports that the Westmoreland County Fire/911 Incidents Facebook page warned its 17,000 followers of reports of menacing clowns in a handful of towns east of Pittsburgh. The panic got so bad that the Greensburg police department had to say the following on its Facebook page:

We can assure everyone we do not have any rogue clowns running around town. Please refrain from possibly tying up our emergency lines in reference to their post.

Be warned, though: Similar scurrilous rumors have begun to spread on Facebook about scary clowns in Reading. Just remember that it’s not true.

Sophomoric stupidity

An unidentified Quinnippiac University student in Connecticut caused an uproar this week when she appeared on Snapchat in “brown mask-like material” and a photo caption that read, “Black Lives Matter.” Aside from said brown makeup, the student appeared to be white and, it goes without saying, clueless (at best).

The university wouldn’t Identify the woman, but did say that it took disciplinary action against a student. Even if this were not a week where two black men were shot to death by police, her post shows incredibly poor judgment.

These are not the police you’re looking for

A man who created a fake Facebook page for the Parma, Ohio, police department is suing the department for unlawful prosecution. Anthony Novak was charged, and later acquitted, with disrupting public services after he created the bogus page, which police say confused people. Novak says police were just offended by what he posted on the page.

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Socially Awkward Media: No-win situation edition

Socially-awkward-mediaSometimes no matter what you do on social media, you can’t win.

That’s not entirely true; you can almost always find a way out without humiliation or a visit from law enforcement. But none of these people took the road more cautiously traveled.

That joke isn’t funny anymore

Two Ohio girls who likely won’t get the above Smiths reference, got in trouble this week because an Instagram post. They posed with toy guns and a sign that read, “I hate everyone, you hate everyone, let’s shoot up the school at homecoming. The Findlay, Ohio, Courier said police were called to the school and determined that the post was a prank. The school was never placed on a lockdown, as it was pretty clear that the post was meant as a joke.

Here’s the punchline: The girls have been suspended. They likely aren’t going to the homecoming dance.

News weak

On Wednesday, Newsweek published a bombshell story on Donald Trump and his potential business conflicts of interests should he win the presidency. The story was solidly researched, thoroughly cited and well researched. So why would the author, Kurt Eichenwald, tweet a false rumor about Trump’s mental health history the day before publication?

The tweet was quickly deleted. But nothing ever really disappears from the internet and it was retweeted hundreds of times before Eichenwald was able to wipe it from his timeline.

When you write a questionable tweet, the time to hit “delete” is BEFORE you hit “send.”

Whine and dine

Shaming pro athletes on social media is turning into a trend. It happened with LeSean McCoy and this week it happened with Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams. Williams was in a restaurant in Maryland where he left a 75-cent tip on a $128.25 bill. The server complained on Facebook, and Williams defended himself on Twitter, saying he got lousy service.

I’m not sure who’s right, and I don’t think shaming a celebrity is the way to generate good tips. But if you’re a pro athlete getting paid millions, it’s time to be the bigger person and leave a generous tip regardless of the service. Most of the time you’re certain to be the bigger person anyway.

 

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Socially awkward media: Turtles, breaches and fakes edition

Socially-awkward-mediaEach week I plumb the depths of the interwebs to find people who behaved badly on social media. Sadly, it takes almost no time at all to find miscreants on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and elsewhere who ought to know better but don’t. These are some of their stories.

Infamy on the back of a turtle

A man in Alabama has the wrong idea about what makes for a compelling animal video. James Terrance Allen was charged with animal cruelty this week after he made a live video on Facebook showing him dousing a turtle with alcohol and setting the animal on fire.

We may applaud the people who saw this horrific act on social media and called police. But others must have been rooting for Allen. He reportedly said he’d set the turtle on fire if his video received 100 views. Shame on him, but shame also on the people who enabled him to get attention, ignominious as it may be.

The one bright spot: The turtle survived and is expected to recover.

Dropbox drops the ball

Remember that hack of Dropbox, the cloud-based file storage site, from a few years back? It turns out that, as with LinkedIn earlier this year, the company underplayed the extent of the security breach. As many as 69 million accounts could be affected, Bloomberg reports.

There is no easy answer when a company’s user accounts are made vulnerable, but some up-front honesty about the known extent of the breach is a good start.

Facebook fakery extends to Myanmar

A story circulated earlier this week that the Myanmar’s Ma Ba Tha, a group of Buddhist monks, had circulated a racist Facebook post against former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, calling him an ethnic slur and using the face of Morgan Freeman in place of Annan’s in the photo. Only problem is: The post is a fake, published by someone impersonating the group.

Annan is in the country to try to bring peace to an area of Myanmar that has seen widespread abuses of Muslims there. Ma Ba Tha has been accused in the past of inciting violence against Muslims in the region. But in this case, the provocative Facebook post is a fake, just like far too many posts on social media.

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Socially awkward media: Celebrity deeds and misdeeds edition

Socially-awkward-mediaCelebrities and social media are a mixed bag. This week I look at one who does social media well, one who did it badly and one non celebrity who nonetheless should have known better.

Silent Bob strikes back

Director Kevin Smith, whom you may know from “Mallrats,” “Clerks” and “Comic Book Men,” has urged an online commenter to make his own “dreams come true.” AWWW! That’s so sweet!

Not really. Smith was responding to a comment criticizing his daughter, Harley Quinn Smith, after she posted a picture of herself on Instagram. The troll, whom one can assume is an awful person, called the younger smith “ugly” and “talentless, and wished her dead. The elder Smith suggested the troll should follow his own dreams, “instead of slamming others for doing the same.”

Not exactly a zinger, but still a nice move to combat online bullies.

Photo bomb

TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres posted a doctored photo of herself riding on the back of Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt on Twitter on Monday, with the caption: This is how I’m running errands from now on.”

Only problem is, the image of a white woman riding a black man is considered racist by many on social media. She came under fire for her post, and Degeneres had to later tweet that she’s “highly aware of the racism that exists in our country” and she’s not racist.

I doubt that any reasonable person would think Degeneres is racist, and I’m sure she wasn’t thinking of the historic symbolism of the photo. But once people on Twitter pointed that out — and many did — she should have pulled the photo and apologized.

Loud as a peacock

An NBC executive got in trouble this week after writing a post critical of presidential candidate Donald Trump. Robert Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment, said that Trump’s “‘mind’ is so demented,” though he doesn’t refer to Trump by name.

Greenblatt doesn’t oversee the news division or have any say in the network’s campaign coverage. Still, it was a remarkably idiotic thing to say on Facebook, even if he thought it was a private post.

Because on Facebook, you have less privacy than you think.

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Socially Awkward Media: Memes people play edition

Socially-awkward-mediaThis column has been on an extended summer vacation. I hope you looked forward to its return. Here are some of the stories of social media fails that have been in the news this past week.

Another childhood icon, ruined

Everything can be turned into a meme these days, for good or ill. Definitely ill, in the case of the beloved children’s series “Arthur.” The show’s producers are complaining that some people are combining stills from the cartoon with language that is definitely NOT fun for the whole family. Have you no sense of decency, internet?
Don’t answer that; we already know.

Teen raider

A 17-year-old was arrested this week in Abbeville, S.C., after photos appeared on Facebook of someone standing inside a tomb in a cemetery. Thanks to social media, the crime was discovered and the teen was charged with desecration of a human burial ground, destruction or removal of human remains and burglary. He might have gotten away with it if not for that meddling kid. But in this case, the meddling kid was himself.

Catch ’em all, if you can afford it

“Pokemon Go,” the smartphone craze that finally succeeded in getting nerds out of doors, made more headlines this week when an Olympic athlete racked up a huge bill playing the game in Rio.

To be fair: You could catch many, many things in Brazil these days, and Pikachu is probably the least harmful of those. Still, six-time world-champion gymnast Kohei Uchimura was stunned to receive a wireless bill for nearly $4,900 in roaming charges.

His carrier agreed to reduce the bill, but the lesson is clear: When pursuing Pokemon, watch where you roam.

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Socially awkward media: Space invasion edition

Socially-awkward-mediaWatch what you like

Russians on social media risk prison for posts that they like or repost. More and more people in that country have been convicted of hate speech, from 92 six years ago to 233 last year. Among the latest criminals was a man from Tver, Russia, who shared a cartoon of a toothpaste tube with the words “Squeeze Russia out of yourself” with his 12 friends. He is now serving a two-year prison sentence. The Kremlin considers hate speech to include anything critical of the state. It’s up to the courts to decide if social media posts are considered a threat.

Keeper of the shame

A Missouri woman was sentenced this week to a year in federal prison for posting nude photos of a 15-year-old girl on Facebook.

The Associated Press reports that the woman found the photos on the girl’s phone, sent them to herself then posted them on the victim’s Facebook page, even changing the password so the girl couldn’t remove them. Her lawyer said she wanted to teach the girl a lesson, and that she’s not a child pornographer.

Lesson learned; Don’t be friends with this woman.

Yes, MySpace is back

It’s never good when a social network that’s been out of the spotlight suddenly gets into the news. Turns out, believe it or not, that MySpace is not dead. Still, let me warn you now to delete your account, assuming you still have one there.

The ancient social network was the target of a massive hack/data dump. On Friday, the Washington Post reports, details on more than 360 million MySpace accounts were dumped online, in a hack that dates back to June 2013.

I know what you’re thinking; That many people were on MySpace in 2013?

At any rate, the company says it disabled the passwords to all those accounts. But Brian Fung, author of the Post piece, recommends you delete your accounts of any social networks you don’t use anymore. So if you still have a MySpace account, get rid of it.

If you still use it, then by all means keep using it. But maybe you should delete your Napster account.

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Socially Awkward Media: Deaf ears edition

Socially-awkward-mediaThis week’s social media fails teach us three important lessons:

  1. Be careful when you take rap lyrics out of context.
  2. Don’t lie about hacking.
  3. Respect nature

Baby got flak

Actress Blake Lively quoted Sir Mix-A-Lot in a recent Instagram post, presumably intending to be funny. The photo showed front-and-back shots of her on the red carpet with the caption, “L.A. face with an Oakland booty,” which we all know as a line from “Baby Got Back.” The photo caused a stir because many considered the post racially insensitive.
I don’t think she intended it that way, and I also think the outrage is overblown. But this is social media, where if you’re not outraged then what are you doing on social media in the first place? Still, there’s a fine line between homage and cultural appropriation. You don’t want to land on the wrong side of that line, as Lively just did.

HackedIn

Remember that time that the social networking site Linkedin got hacked, and 6.5 million users’ passwords were stolen? Funny story: The number is more than 17 times higher than that. Linkedin confirmed this week that the 2012 data breach resulted in the passwords of 117 million users. That’s more than one quarter of the network’s 400 million members worldwide.
The company says it’s working on resetting the passwords and that there’s no indication of a new data breach. Let’s hope it doesn’t take another four years to confirm.

Dope springs eternal

Thank goodness for social media. Without it, the group of men who wandered off the trail and onto a restricted part of Yellowstone National Park might have gotten away with it. Instead, members of the group High on Life SundayFundayz face criminal charges for straying off a boardwalk path that goes through the park’s hot springs. They left the path and took pictures of themselves on a geothermal feature.

This happened the same week that a bison calf at the park had to be euthanized because it was handled by overzealous park visitors.

I can only imagine people take these idiotic steps for selfies to prove they were at these impressive sites. But here’s a tip that will save you embarrassment and legal troubles and, more importantly, preserve the sensitive landscape around you, whether it’s a museum or a national park:

You don’t need to be in the photo to prove you were there. Your photo of the place proves it.

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Socially Awkward Media: Unreasonable reaction edition

Socially-awkward-mediaFlag on the play

This week, a Texas A & M assistant football coach was disciplined Monday in the wake of a minor Twitter storm he created. After Tate Martell, a sought-after recruit from Las Vegas, announced last week he was reopening his recruitment, Aaron Moorhead wrote a series of tweets decrying the decline of loyalty. Martell had given a verbal commitment to the Aggies before changing his mind.

Perhaps Moorhead forgot that old saw about verbal contracts not being worth the paper they’re printed on.

In any case, I hope he learned the most important lesson of social media: You don’t have to tweet every thought you have.

All this over a goat

Sometimes a funny goat video is just a funny goat video. But that’s not how police say a Massachusetts man took it.

Kevin Sullivan took offense when a woman he knew shared a video of a goat (also named Kevin) getting ridiculed and acting mean toward other goats. The human Kevin thought it meant he was a bad father, according the Boston Globe. He met the woman and her boyfriend. A fight ensued, and police say Kevin stabbed the friend.

He’s now charged with assault and battery.

But at least he defended his reputation as a father.

The imaginary threats next door

A social networking site in California had to change the way its users report suspicious activity after some say it was used for racial profiling, the AP reports.

Nextdoor.com was created to connect real-life neighbors in online communities. But a group in Oakland, Calif., says users were profiling minorities, posting photos of, say, a black man walking “too slowly” in a neighborhood. The site’s administrators say they’re changing the process so people will have to think a little more before they post.

You know, how everyone else does on every other social network on the planet.

It’s a good move, because sometimes a guy walking down the street is just a guy walking down the street. Make that most of the time.

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