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The moral panic over social media in Ireland is a convenient distraction The moral panic over social media in Ireland is a convenient distraction
(35 minutes later)
In a week in which Irish newspapers attracted global incredulity for attempting to copyright links to their articles, Irish politicians have trumped this attempt to restructure the internet by simply declaring it to be evil. Recent reporting of suicides, a corrosive debate on abortion rights and transparent attempts to stifle political criticism have been fused into a full-throated moral panic over social media. Coming from a political class still convinced that LOL promises them lots of love, the wheels are likely to fall off this bandwagon long before it trundles from tawdry to totalitarian. But as deliberate exercises in displacement, moral panics illustrate something of the dominant political culture, and this opportunistic trolling is no exception.In a week in which Irish newspapers attracted global incredulity for attempting to copyright links to their articles, Irish politicians have trumped this attempt to restructure the internet by simply declaring it to be evil. Recent reporting of suicides, a corrosive debate on abortion rights and transparent attempts to stifle political criticism have been fused into a full-throated moral panic over social media. Coming from a political class still convinced that LOL promises them lots of love, the wheels are likely to fall off this bandwagon long before it trundles from tawdry to totalitarian. But as deliberate exercises in displacement, moral panics illustrate something of the dominant political culture, and this opportunistic trolling is no exception.
The current focus on the dangers of social media stems from late December 2012, when the Fine Gael TD and junior agriculture minister Shane McEntee took his own life. Party colleagues were quick to suggest that online abuse was a factor in his death, and the Oireachtas Committee on Communications announced that it would instigate an investigation into cyberbullying. The chairman, Tom Hayes, warned that "this thing can't be left to go unchecked, where people can put up vile comments and get away with it". If specific threats were made to McEntee, then Hayes is correct that they should be investigated. However, the amplification of these specific concerns into concerted condemnation of social media displays a predictable distaste for interactive media's partial re-ordering of communicative power relations, and the limited forms of political criticism they have enabled in Troika-era Ireland.The current focus on the dangers of social media stems from late December 2012, when the Fine Gael TD and junior agriculture minister Shane McEntee took his own life. Party colleagues were quick to suggest that online abuse was a factor in his death, and the Oireachtas Committee on Communications announced that it would instigate an investigation into cyberbullying. The chairman, Tom Hayes, warned that "this thing can't be left to go unchecked, where people can put up vile comments and get away with it". If specific threats were made to McEntee, then Hayes is correct that they should be investigated. However, the amplification of these specific concerns into concerted condemnation of social media displays a predictable distaste for interactive media's partial re-ordering of communicative power relations, and the limited forms of political criticism they have enabled in Troika-era Ireland.
Historically, fear of new media forms is inseparable from modern fear of the unruly potential of the "mob", and this fear was worn with patrician pride in several breathless broadsides. On Wednesday, in the Irish Independent, the former Progressive Democrat TD Liz O'Donnell wondered "what is to be gained from such a scrappy, ill-considered dialogue?" On Thursday, in The Irish Times, in an article devoid of a single reference or fact, David Adams argued that something called "internet journalism" was "at a level equivalent to the stone age". And on Friday, fresh from his appearance in an anti-abortion rights YouTube video, where he notes that "literally a tsunami of the culture of death is washing over Ireland", columnist John Waters advised that "a venomous and toxic social media is out of control".Historically, fear of new media forms is inseparable from modern fear of the unruly potential of the "mob", and this fear was worn with patrician pride in several breathless broadsides. On Wednesday, in the Irish Independent, the former Progressive Democrat TD Liz O'Donnell wondered "what is to be gained from such a scrappy, ill-considered dialogue?" On Thursday, in The Irish Times, in an article devoid of a single reference or fact, David Adams argued that something called "internet journalism" was "at a level equivalent to the stone age". And on Friday, fresh from his appearance in an anti-abortion rights YouTube video, where he notes that "literally a tsunami of the culture of death is washing over Ireland", columnist John Waters advised that "a venomous and toxic social media is out of control".
Subsequently, the minister for communications, Pat Rabbitte, singled out Jim Sheridan, who works on RTÉ's Late Late Show, for what he termed "deplorable and offensive" tweets that circulated satirical images of the rightwing Catholic senator Rónán Mullen. Sheridan clearly tweets in a personal capacity, but the implication of the criticism from Rabbitte and Mullen is that Sheridan's humour should be a matter of concern for his employer. This may strike some readers as a novel way to advance the critique of cyberbullying, and part of the problem with this manufactured outrage is that it is so replete with hypocrisy.Subsequently, the minister for communications, Pat Rabbitte, singled out Jim Sheridan, who works on RTÉ's Late Late Show, for what he termed "deplorable and offensive" tweets that circulated satirical images of the rightwing Catholic senator Rónán Mullen. Sheridan clearly tweets in a personal capacity, but the implication of the criticism from Rabbitte and Mullen is that Sheridan's humour should be a matter of concern for his employer. This may strike some readers as a novel way to advance the critique of cyberbullying, and part of the problem with this manufactured outrage is that it is so replete with hypocrisy.
This ad-hoc Un-Irish Satirical Activities Committee singled out an RTÉ employee for criticising political figures in a personal capacity, but had nothing to say about RTÉ's satirical Irish Pictorial Weekly, which regularly features the political class as pliant "pixie heads" manipulated by a cat-stroking Angela Merkel. On the basis of the possibility that vicious communications led to the death of a colleague, there have been widespread political calls to regulate and restrict social media. But if a pregnant woman states that she is feeling suicidal because of an unwanted pregnancy, many in the same Fine Gael party – as the process of legislating for the X Case judgment in the aftermath of Savita Halappanavar's death proceeds – wonder aloud as to how best to establish the veracity of "suicidal ideation", and how to guard against "abuses" by women implicitly deemed incapable of being trusted with their own autonomy.This ad-hoc Un-Irish Satirical Activities Committee singled out an RTÉ employee for criticising political figures in a personal capacity, but had nothing to say about RTÉ's satirical Irish Pictorial Weekly, which regularly features the political class as pliant "pixie heads" manipulated by a cat-stroking Angela Merkel. On the basis of the possibility that vicious communications led to the death of a colleague, there have been widespread political calls to regulate and restrict social media. But if a pregnant woman states that she is feeling suicidal because of an unwanted pregnancy, many in the same Fine Gael party – as the process of legislating for the X Case judgment in the aftermath of Savita Halappanavar's death proceeds – wonder aloud as to how best to establish the veracity of "suicidal ideation", and how to guard against "abuses" by women implicitly deemed incapable of being trusted with their own autonomy.
TD Mary Mitchell O'Connor holds that "it is impossible to quantify how many deaths have been caused or contributed to in the country by the negative elements of social media". But it is possible to quantify the diversion of €35m last year from the suicide prevention and mental health services budget, and the attempts by international media to document "suicide by economic crisis" have warranted few Sunday afternoon press releases. And so it goes; double standards this prevalent quickly lose illustrative force.TD Mary Mitchell O'Connor holds that "it is impossible to quantify how many deaths have been caused or contributed to in the country by the negative elements of social media". But it is possible to quantify the diversion of €35m last year from the suicide prevention and mental health services budget, and the attempts by international media to document "suicide by economic crisis" have warranted few Sunday afternoon press releases. And so it goes; double standards this prevalent quickly lose illustrative force.
Public reflection on the folding of networked communications into social and political life is important, but it can't happen when conflict in society and politics is displaced on to a reassuring focus on media harm. Further, if communication is shaped by context, the instigation of a moral panic about "cyberbullying" takes place within the bullying structure provided by austerity.Public reflection on the folding of networked communications into social and political life is important, but it can't happen when conflict in society and politics is displaced on to a reassuring focus on media harm. Further, if communication is shaped by context, the instigation of a moral panic about "cyberbullying" takes place within the bullying structure provided by austerity.
While the extent and nature of the abuse directed at politicians remains to be scrutinised, public civility is hardly diluted by rogue tweets alone. While this moral panic is unlikely to lead to any actual regulative proposals, an already denigrated democracy can do without this spectacle. While the extent and nature of the abuse directed at politicians remains to be scrutinised, public civility is hardly diluted by rogue tweets alone. Given the dependence of dominant austerity narratives on the image of a "mature" and accepting population, it is probably the participative and mobilising possibilities of social media that informs this calculated demonisation. While this moral panic is unlikely to lead to any actual regulative proposals, an already denigrated democracy can do without this spectacle.