Social media is making it harder to hear legitimate criticism

When was the last time you were in a Twitter mob? We know these maelstroms of anger so well now, and even remember the names of some of the people randomly caught up in them over the years too. There was Justine Sacco, who lost her job after tweeting a joke about AIDS, and Jon Ronson, who ended up getting it in the neck for writing about her. There was the beautician who tweeted about ‘barraco barner’ and ended up being called a ‘stupid cow’ and an ‘oxygen thief’ for what she admitted was a ‘ditzy moment’. There are MPs, journalists and plenty of far more normal people who have suddenly found themselves getting death threats and days’ worth of furious messages after one misjudged comment.

In fact online mobs are now so commonplace that we can assume they are the default, even when what’s happening is in fact legitimate criticism.