I can't really say exactly what catches my eye when scrolling through my news feed that makes me click on a link to read a story. I'm interested in politics, science, sociology, humor, and especially anything that I think might make good material for my blog.
I saw an article on Slate.com that showed a picture of a pretty, young woman (that in itself usually enough to pique my interest) with a nose ring, and under that, the caption, "A woman tweets #KillAllWhiteMen and the Internet explodes."
The page opened up to a story by Amanda Hess about a college student who was quoted out of context and vilified in the troll-ridden webosphere. It sounded like another of the never-ending "people gonna hate" episodes that turns the Internet from a free and open forum of differing thoughts and opinions into a no-man's- land (no pun intended) of violence and vitriol.
I myself constantly worry in the back of my mind about what I may post that triggers a backlash of hate mail and death threats. Before I started my blog, my family held a discussion in regard to the possible ramifications of putting myself out there, and we came to the decision that I shouldn't be intimidated into silence.
Actually, I wasn't even going to comment on this story until I read to the end and found this paragraph, "This is the time we live in: Thousands of people have signed a petition to unseat a woman they’ve never heard of from a position they don’t understand at a school they’ve never visited over a tweet they’ve never seen."
"Nutshell," I thought. This explains what the Net has become.
The story itself involves a student named Bahar Mustafa, a self-proclaimed “queer, anti-racist, feminist killjoy.”
Mustafa holds a Master's degree in gender and media studies from Goldsmiths, University of London, where she just won re-election to her post as welfare and diversity officer for Goldsmiths’ student union. Mustafa was organizing a protest over upwardly spiraling tuition costs, and in a Facebook message to her friends to help spread the word, she wrote tongue-in-cheek, “If you’re a man and/or white PLEASE DON’T COME. [But] don’t worry lads we will give you and allies things to do.”
A recipient of the message published the comment on a student news site, where it was quickly picked up by the local tabloids who in short order stated that Mustafa had used the hashtag, "#KillAllWhiteMen," on her personal twitter account.
As the story spread out of control, a Change.org petition emerged demanding that Mustafa be arrested on charges of hate speech and terrorism.
Among the elegantly phrased suggestions (from, presumably, a white male in fear for his life from the hedge-clipper wielding, lesbian hordes), was to “rape her in the cunt with a chainsaw.”
In view of this and other such comments, you would think the police would take an interest in this situation, and indeed they did, although not in the way you might suppose.
"This week Scotland Yard told reporters that after receiving a tip, its officers had launched an investigation into Mustafa’s social media activities, searching for evidence of a 'racially motivated malicious communication.'”
As opposed to the Internet itself.
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