Twitter has the good, the bad and the ugly

It is undeniable that Twitter has increasingly revealed its ugly side and become a forum for bullying, witch hunts and a way of spreading vicious lies

Twitter is a wonderful means of mass communication – and also a very efficient way to send death threats, ­defamatory remarks and stupid comments.

Hating Twitter would be like hating the telephone – the micro-blogging social network site is simply a tool, the latest way that human beings have devised of talking to each other.

But it is undeniable that Twitter has increasingly revealed its ugly side and become a forum for bullying, witch hunts and – worst of all – a way of spreading vicious lies.

It doesn’t make you despair of Twitter. It makes you despair of the human race.

Tweeters have grown accustomed to believing the laws that govern everyone else do not apply to them.

In messages of 140 characters or less, many have revealed the most venal side of human nature – the spiteful, ­malicious side that is always willing to believe the very worst of someone else.

Frankly, I did not believe that anyone would ever tame the ugly side of Twitter.

Lord McAlpine has proved me completely wrong.

Casually smeared on Twitter when he was wrongly accused of child abuse, McAlpine, 70, is fighting back – and doing us all a favour.

Thousands defamed him.

He shows no sign of letting any of them off the hook. Good luck to him.

He wants a formal apology from all of them and token compensation that he plans to donate to Children in Need.

We should all wish him well.

Lord McAlpine is like Gary Cooper in High Noon – cleaning up a place and time that the bad guys have turned into a cesspit.

And never again will mouthy ­comedians be quite so ready to snicker and point and believe the worst of someone.

Never again will Z-list celebrities be free to titter and sneer and blacken someone’s name.

I remain a fan of Twitter.

There is absolutely nothing remotely like it for talking directly and instantly to large numbers of people.

When pop singer Michelle Heaton was recovering from a double mastectomy this week, she was able to talk to those who care about her via Twitter.

When Rio Ferdinand wants to explain a bust-up on the pitch, he does not need a publicist or a reporter – Rio can address his 3,558,680-odd followers directly.

But Twitter has lost its way.

Free speech has too often degenerated into ­innuendo, bullying and sickening abuse.

It is now commonplace for a newborn baby to be welcomed into the world with death threats, abuse and taunts on Twitter.

It happened to Lily Allen. It happened to Adele.

And it will happen to whatever high-profile celebrity is next to give birth.

Do we really want to live in a world where babies get death threats from cowards hiding behind a computer?

Twitter desperately needs to clean up its act if it is to survive as more than a ­playground for gutless, witless trolls. And the unlikely figure of Lord McAlpine is the man to do it.

In High Noon, they accused Gary Cooper’s sheriff of being a coward when he left town with Grace Kelly.

He came back and proved them all wrong.

Sometimes when one man fights for his good name, he makes the entire world a better place.

 

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http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/twitter-has-become-a-forum-for-bullying-witch-1453066
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