Jan Moir, Ian and the power of social media

A TfL employee is apparently suspended from his job and a controversial column on the Daily Mail's website is changed.

How are these two events linked? They both generated outrage among members of Twitter, who promptly took action that led to the suspension and the headline change, illustrating the immense power of social media.

I am afraid I can go no further without saying that I absolutely hate the term 'social media'. What a joyless expression for services such as Twitter which offer their members so much. Why can't we call it something else?

Anyway, going back to my original point, let me give you some background to the stories.

A TfL (that's Transport for London for any of you who have not had the unabated pleasure of using its services) employee is filmed swearing at and threatening an elderly passenger on the London Underground.

The film is posted online, and picked up on by Twitter members. It emerges that the employee in question is called Ian (and he doesn't protect his Facebook profile, stupidly) and comes to the attention of the Mayor of London. He asks TfL to investigate and TfL apparently suspends the employee.

Our next case is a column written by Jan Moir in the Femail section of the Daily Mail originally entitled 'Why there was nothing 'natural' about Stephen Gately's death'. It caused controversy because it was essentially a small-minded and hateful piece which attacked Gately in particular and the gay community in general.

Another quick aside: My understanding of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC)'s Code of Practice suggests to me that it definitely contravenes points covering discrimination, accuracy and intrusion into grief. I've received training on the subject of the PCC's Code of Practice and it surprises me that Moir and the relevant editors at the Mail seemingly have not. I'm also familiar with libel law so I'm going to stop short of telling you my personal views about these people.

But once Twitter members had got hold of it, Jan Moir's name became a trending topic on the site, people were encouraged to complain to the PCC (some 6,000 have at the time of writing) and the comments section on the article was flooded.

The headline was subsequently changed to 'A strange, lonely and troubling death...' with a subheading reading 'Jan Moir on the troubling death of Stephen Gately'. However, none of the body copy was changed.

But again, this is Twitter's muscle at work. Ian is suspended and Moir's article amended. Moir herself has actually since joined Twitter and though her posts are not nearly as poisonous as her original article, she apparently doesn't see any need to apologise and thinks the fuss is rather funny.

However, though this week's battles seem to be clear cut in terms of right and wrong, this power could easily be abused. Can we always trust that good will win out? Or could darker forces, say the BNP, harness Twitter's power for their own ends?

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