I stumbled/jumped into a Twitter-tornado last night as prompted by a blog post by Maggie Murphy (@HeartAGlow). In it, Murphy shares the conversation (both public *and* private) that she had with MP Tony Clement (@TonyClementCPC), urging him to separate his official (i.e. Conservative Party of Canada) tweeting from his personal (i.e. Tony Clement) tweeting by starting a second Twitter account.
I commented on her post that I thought she was way out of line for posting the DMs (“Direct Messages” these are only visible to the parties involved and are not visible to the public, therefore there is an expectation of privacy or discretion) and I thought her tone was correctly received as an attack — in the end, Clement blocked her.
When Janis La Couvée (@lacouvee) tweeted about Murphy’s post and asked some other political-followers on Twitter what they thought, the conversation grew by leaps and bounds, causing Murphy to feel “slammed” and attacked for several hours last night. This is in part because
La Couvée has over 5000 Twitter followers and is integral to the local Twitter community and in part because Murphy touched a nerve in the community.
Murphy on the other hand is a self-confessed “newbie” and I believe that’s the core issue here; she was dragged into a conversation with some Twitter heavy-hitters and was overwhelmed by “40+ @’s per hour” (i.e. 40 tweets per hour in which she was mentioned). I agree, it get’s to be a bit crazy when conversations — especially those on political issues and Twitter ettiquette — get going at only 140 char per tweet. It was a lot for me, too, but I wasn’t copied/mentioned for every message — that’s part of the frustration. At some point, it was suggested that the subject be awarded a hashtag but no one could agree on something appropriate; a hashtag would have allowed the conversation to be followed by anyone interested in watching it unfold without following every person involved.
By the end of the night, tempers had flared (one user had been told to “F Off”) and subsided. Most agreed there is still education needed for digital literacy and the idea for a roundtable/tweetup (currently #politweetup) has grown roots and is being organized by Janni Aragon (@janniaragon) to be held at UVic.
There were two key issues at the centre of the discussion:
- sharing DMs publicly (was this OK ever? what is the expectation of privacy? does a politician/public figure have the same rights as others?)
- do businesses/public figures always need to split their twitter selves in two?
Opinions, understandably, varied and trying to make arguments inside the limited world of Twitter was a challenge, to say the least.
My view? Tony Clement does a good job of balancing his tweets; he added the CPC to his handle to make it clear that the account was also his official MP Twitter handle. Not everyone can manage to balance the official with the personal — Murphy’s argument was that he shouldn’t even try. As for sharing the DMs? While I acknowledge that privacy is never assured, especially when messages are exchanged between people who don’t know each other well, there is room for courtesy.
What do you think?
NOTE: post was edited to add information about the organizer of the #politweetup
Spot on questions, Cheryl. Personally, I assume that ANYTHING I send out over the Internet, be it e-mails, tweets, FB posts, etc., could become public, so I’d better take some time and think about what I am sending. AFAIK, there is still little case law regarding digital slander/libel, but pretty much I’m of the opinion that if it can’t be backed up with facts or a track record of philosophical alignment, I’m probably not going to commit it to bits. The flame wars I get into generally have to do with people attempting to take advantage of others, and I’m pretty sure that I would stand by any statement I’ve made. Hopefully that includes ones taken out of context (Guy Kawasaki & James Moore being notable for the exchanges via Twitter).
Thanks, Bruce. I agree that one has to assume that anything you say or do these days could be captured and shared (CCTV, anyone?) but I still maintain that courtesy was in order in the situation in question.
Murphy has commented on the original post, btw, and stands by her decision to post the DMs. She also posted a follow-up regarding the “tornado”; both worth a read if you are curious.
The “Globe and Mail Rule” is invoked. If you don’t want to see it on the front page of the newspaper, don’t say it, write it, type it, carve it or otherwise go beyond thinking it. This includes e-mails, DMs, adding the word “not” into sentences, etc.
Having said this, I also think the level of political discourse on Twitter since #elxn41 has gone down the toilet. Harsh partisan rhetoric has replaced critical thinking.
This reflects the political culture in Canada (and perhaps moreso, the U.S.). The parties and players have been demonized beyond ridiculous proportions.
Most politicians I have met (and that’s many, from all political stripes) get involved in politics because they want to invoke positive change. Whether their philosophies or ideas are positive or negative, of course, is in the eye of the beholder.
But it’s safe to say that we’ve devolved to the point now where most Canadians (ordinary folk) would not agree with me. They think politicians get into politics for some twisted delight in hurting ordinary people, or to enrich themselves at other people’s expense. There’s no room left even for benefit of the doubt … we jump instantly to the worst imaginable assumptions.
So the rational conclusion is what we experience on Twitter … if you believe somebody is setting out to destroy the planet in the name of being evil, you must react harshly, because knowing their unfaltering motives for evil, why on earth would you be civilized toward them (or their supporters)?
I find the whole thing truly disgusting, and I don’t have any solutions.
Thanks for the comment, Paul.
I think, like it or not, much of our reaction to politicians is a reflection of what we see in the media at large — in the US, it is far more obviously polarized but the lack of respect is out of control on both sides of the border. I’d argue, too, that the lack of respect extends well beyond politicians — much has been published of late about what people can do about not just the trolls but those interactions that just go off the rails — this little Twitter Tornado was a perfect example: insults were flung pretty quickly by some and it was surprising how quickly people raised their backs in response. The thing with Twitter is that it’s largely a transient medium. Unless you back up your tweets or someone does a screen-capture, they’ll disappear in short order. Sure, the Library of Congress is archiving them, but who will ever be able to access that archive? It’s a lot easier to throw garbage into a river than on your front lawn so many people don’t even think twice about what they tweet.
As for politicians, I agree that most start from an honest wish to change things but I have also seen many (from all stripes) who get worn down, jaded, or just frustrated by Canada’s insulating levels of bureaucracy, to the point where they lack the ability to effect change — granted, this is much worse in some levels of government than others.
I also don’t have a solution but I think “courtesy” is a good place to start.