IT’S heartening when free speech flourishes, but disturbing when it is unidentified, fake, misleading, malign or the work of bots, trolls and other peculiar phenomena that have exploited what should be a wonderful human resource for malign ends.
Today, on Twitter, all the world is a platform and everyone a player, some strutting, some fretting and some – lest we forget – amusing, informing and entertaining. A forthcoming report reveals that, in Scotland, somewhere between 4.25 and 12.24 per cent of Twitter activity can be identified as potentially malign.
Scotland and Social Media: Trolls Under The Bridge?, commissioned by SNP MEP Alyn Smith and compiled by former police inspector turned investigative journalist JJ Patrick, emphasises that Scottish Twitter is generally a positive resource. But trolls, bots and their ilk remain a worry. They latch onto issues like Scottish independence and Brexit to mislead users, further polarise opponents, add a brutal note to discourse, and plant fake news. Savvy internet users can spot them, but they’re a cunning bunch, lurking darkly on multiple accounts. The report’s authors suggest the introduction of location verification and creating an online environment that forestalls trolls. Mr Smith says we can “up our digital literacy”. Mr Patrick posits a potentially positive future with Scottish social media reclaimed as platforms and governments learn to work together. We would welcome that.
Political discourse today is conducted on oddly dichotomous lines. Online, anything goes while, in ancient institutions such as the House of Commons, the talk is of “honourable gentlemen” and “greatest respect”, at least in the lucid intervals between bawling and braying. That said, the recent episode in which a Labour parliamentary aide used Facebook to speak of putting Prime Minister Theresa May’s neck in a noose demonstrated that malign communication isn’t the preserve of unidentifiable bots. If our political players could set a better example, Twitter users might also up their game, leaving the trolls and bots easier to spot.
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