Last week saw two great victories for social media. The first was the Guardian/Trafigura/Super-injunction debacle, that highlighted the growing trend of preventing the press from reporting certain stories that would be particularly harmful to the reputation of organisations. After much uproar on Twitter the injunction was lifted and the Guardian was able to publish the details of Trafigura’s toxic waste dumping antics.
The second victory was against the Daily Mail. Jan Moir’s article about Stephen Gately’s death caused outrage and upset for suggesting that Gately’s death was not ‘natural’, as the corroners report had said, but was in some way connected to his sexuality. So once again Twitter mobilised to share their outrage, forcing Moir to apologise and causing major advertisers, such as Marks and Spencers, to request that their advert be removed from the page. See Charlie Booker’s article here.
What these two events highlight is the shift in power from the news being controlled by a few, to it being shared and discussed by millions. We now have the ability to share information at staggering speed and for the first time in history everyone is a publisher, writer and distributor of information. What this means for businesses is that they too have an opportunity to join in the discussion, not to control it, but to play an active role. Trafigura were attempting the old school approach of shut the press up and no one will ever know, but this is no longer possible in the world of social media.
Hurrah for social media. Fortunately ‘the mob’ was on the side I agree with, Twitter being largely dominated still by left(-ish) liberal(-ish) thinking people (at least that’s what I read somewhere). It will be interesting to see how this new found power of the people works down the line… I, for one, love it and hope it continues to be a positive force, but as with any tool – it’s only as good as it’s users and doesn’t guarantee success. The Poll Tax protests worked because the government was prepared to back down. The Trafigura outrage worked because it became pointless not to lift it. But Iran is still struggling with a government it may or may not have elected, and China still try to block knowledge of their infamous Square.
It’s people that make the difference. Social media is a great place to share your voice – but it only works if you’re prepared to speak.
You’re right to compare those instances to China and Iran, I think sometimes we forget that we still have freedom of speech and the large majority of our MPs support it unquestionably. We’re luckier than we realise!