Recent reports have focused on the savaging Canadian author Margaret Atwood has received on social media for an article she authored in which she claimed that the #MeToo campaign was a symptom of a broken legal system. Referring to a case in which a Canadian academic lost his job after allegations of sexual harassment, she claimed that the campaign has become a "witch hunt" in which the idea of due process - that people must be presumed innocent until found guilty under the law, is being threatened by mob rule by which an anonymous allegation (usually of some kind of sexual misconduct) is enough to unleash a reputation-destroying avalanche of negative comments.
Comment: While the author's point is a worthy one, it doesn't necessarily stand to reason that, by focusing on what's happening on social media, journalists are missing an opportunity to provide useful information. Often what people are saying about a debate can be as important as the debate itself. However, such reporting does run the risk of elevating social media in importance, when the dangers of such media have not been fully sussed-out. See:
- Former Facebook exec says social media is 'destroying how society works'
- Muzzled: Social media silencing dissenters
- Social media as a negative coping mechanism leading to addiction
- Cyber-bullying rampant on social media; Instagram a hotbed of abuse, says charity
- Study Finds: National Institutes of Health surveils social media for vaccine beliefs
Atwood's original article: Margaret Atwood: Am I a bad feminist?