Racism and social media

[PTID1862]

Once again the racism via social media topic is coming to the fore.

I am pleased no end that we don't get as much on the terraces anymore although there is still the odd comment heard, even at Notts.

But like others I am struggling to understand why more cannot be done to stem the tide of abuse through social media..http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29988074

Thoughts?

[DangerousSausage]

Social networks seem to bring out the worst in people. Every post in Facebook or YouTube video seems to be accompanied by a stream of abusive comments. Internet trolling really has gone mainstream.

 

Muslims are in the firing line right now - many closet racists choose to spread their bile from behind a front of being "critical of Islam". There has recently been a new development in Germany. Hooligans there are often organised into fan clubs, and hooligans from several clubs have started "Hooligans gegen Salafisten" or HoGeSa (Hooligans against Salafists). Of course they pose as the only ones who take to the streets to defend Germany's democratic values and OF COURSE they're not racist or violent, but those who had to witness 4000 of them in Cologne with known neo-Nazis in their ranks chanting "Ausländer raus" (foreigners out) and attacking the police tell a different story. And they were brought together through the power of social media.

 

What's the answer? I don't know. Racist abuse, death threats etc. shouldn't be tolerated. When someone is clearly trolling they don't deserve a response at all, unless they have broken the law. But you can take things too far - banning undesirable opinions online is just the kind of thing nazis or salafists would do. It's a fine line to tread.

[PTID1862]

A fine line indeed, but like you say, if an offence has been committed, do the likes of Twitter have a duty to society?

 

Allowing these things to slide can only be a bad thing IMO

[Cobby]

What's the answer? I don't know. Racist abuse, death threats etc. shouldn't be tolerated. When someone is clearly trolling they don't deserve a response at all, unless they have broken the law. But you can take things too far - banning undesirable opinions online is just the kind of thing nazis or salafists would do. It's a fine line to tread.

 

You could possibly have some sort of "opt-in blacklist", where if someone gets flagged for posting too much undesirable content they get added to a blacklist.  Now this blacklist could then be turned on by those who are sensitive to it (i.e. those who are the subject to abuse) or turned off by those who would prefer no censorship.  This would still be open to abuse I suppose with there being groups who could get someone on this blacklist because they don't agree (even if the offender wasn't being abusive)

[PTID1862]

Is social media self policing, like the terraces have become... I have myself seen people told to shut up for racist comments at games.

 

I guess de-friending (if that's how you do it) and not responding would be one way of dealing with it... Surely if there is no audience/reaction, the troll will move on.

[DangerousSausage]

A fine line indeed, but like you say, if an offence has been committed, do the likes of Twitter have a duty to society?

 

Allowing these things to slide can only be a bad thing IMO

 

I fully agree - when the law has been broken, Twitter et. al. have a duty to cooperate. However, we are now facing the problem that there is so much abuse that may be against the law, it's difficult to act on it all. I've seen very popular Facebook groups full of appalling racist abuse, death threats, rape threats, you name it. It shouldn't be left up, but neither can all these people be prosecuted, there are simply too many of them. I think the threat of being prosecuted could make potential trolls think twice, though.

[PTID1862]

Why on earth NOT? If they have committed an offence, it is only right they are prosecuted!!! The number of offenders shouldn't make one iota of difference to proceedings or not. IMO

[DangerousSausage]

I agree with you it shouldn't. In the past I had the displeasure of seeing a certain far-right hate group's memes appearing on my Facebook feed. Under a single one of these images you will find scores of abusive comments that are very likely breaking the law in some way - and they post about a dozen of these memes every day. It just isn't feasibly possible to drag each and every one of the trolls to court, sadly. The ones you read about were probably the very worst offenders.

[PTID1862]

ideas.

 

Block phones and sim cards used to submit the horrible stuff. Similarly with PC's.

 

Work with security software people so that should a ban be placed upon IP's or devices that the user cannot remove them by cleansing.

 

Perhaps is these people had to constantly purchase new computers or phones/sim cards, that might help.

 

I don't know, just sort of floating ideas

[Chris]

The issue with social media is they're so popular that the controls have to be in place from the start, Twitter's never had this and they're absolutely useless. Facebook isn't that great but they do review cases, if you report things it's quite slow for them to respond and generally they dismiss threats as 'banter' or a 'joke'. It's not, the police take it more seriously and they should.

People should just be mindful of others these days.

Sometimes something you say to a friend, isn't acceptable to 5. If you was in a group you wouldn't do it, so why do some idiots do it on Twitter or other social websites?

I forget the other social site which was plagued with bully but they spent a lot of money trying to tidy it up.

It's got to be something foreseen for me, hindsight is great but you have to act on it and for me the trouble with social media is the fact anyone can say what they like.

[PTID1862]

The latest in the racism storm that is surrounding Dave Whelan, has admitted that he USED to call the Chinese - Chingalings.

Hell for those of a certain age now this might seem terrible, and rightly so, things are not accepted now the way they were

But, and here I will have my say...

A lot of us were brought up in not so enlightened times and the words Chinky, Sambo and others much worse were around us all the time, including on The BBC....

Programs such as : Love thy Neighbour, Goodness Gracious Me (while a mickey take, still relevant), Mind your Language, we also had the marvel that used to be Til Death us Do Part.

But it wasn't just the Television, it was the media in general, all of it, most of these things started on the radio.

Now fast forward 40 years, times have rightly changed, what was tolerable and WIDELY USED language, terminology and behaviour within our less secular societies is now frowned upon as we aim to become more integrated. GOOD. But I defy anybody who was 1. old enough, 2. had a TV (no not every house did) 3. watched these. or even 4 families watched these programs and took part in school days or work days, to tell me they never said anything that would now be considered incorrect, or their families didn't....

I suspect they wont be able to, times have changed and we don't have Chai wallahs anymore on "It aint half hot mum", BUT we did back then and while looking back tends to leave some soul searching as to were we right.... It was NORMAL. and yes back then I was as guilty as anybody else.


Rant over
 

[liampie]

we have to be mindful of making comments or harmless jokes, yet others show racism towards white people. i dont like racism but nobody does anything when its on the other foot.

some actually use it as an excuse or a weapon.

i think to a level its gone ott with how things are taken. you should address people correctly but even then you speak to the police for example, how do you describe someone from jamaica or africia? people class those terms as racist. police offers refer to them as the colour of the skin, which a normal person would not because of being labelled.

its hard these days but people should just get along.  

[cheeky~k8]

Alot of things that are said online would never be said to someone in person. People get away with more hiding behind a phone or computer.

Racism unfortunately will never stop completely and it comes people of all types. Most of us know better but the minority causes trouble for the rest.

[captain-ncfc]

I think some don't understand how offensive they can be.

At school nothing happens really for anyone, polish students get a lot of stick and often by minorities which should relate. I think its a sign of being scared, a lot like bulling.