IN the Middle Ages, people found guilty of petty crimes would often be put in the stocks — wooden blocks with holes for the head and hands and displayed in the town square for passersby to jeer at. During China’s Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards would parade ideological enemies, making them wear placards and (often) loudly repeat their ‘crimes’. The intent of both punishments was not so much to inflict pain, but to cause humiliation and to act as a warning to others.

Luckily, humanity has evolved since then and now, instead of actual lynch mobs we have virtual ones where, thanks to the wonders of a digitally connected world, the red guards can number in the millions.

Welcome to the era of social media shaming, where anything you post can and will be used against you for our collective outrage and amusement. There is no statute of limitations and context is irrelevant.

Following the PTI’s Haripur defeat Reham Khan’s son Sahir tweeted something disparaging about the ‘Pakistani awam’

This is something a young man with a modicum of fame-by-association learned a few days back. Following the PTI’s Haripur defeat Reham Khan’s son Sahir tweeted something disparaging about the ‘Pakistani awam’. It was ill-informed and offensive but that goes for at least 70pc of all tweets ever. On cue, hordes of angry tweeple descended upon his timeline, with people who generally hate Imran Khan standing alongside people who love Imran but hate Reham along with a liberal sprinkling of nationalists and people who were, well, just bored.

Then Twitter sleuths got a hold of posts he had made years back which were less favourable to the PTI and thus began the victory cries of those who had found the latest ‘hypocrite’ to ‘expose’. Some of those tweets were deleted by Sahir, but anything you post can and will be screenshotted. He also tried to explain that his earlier views had changed, but few were listening. People changing their minds and views over time? That’s just crazy.

US-based PR executive Justine Sacco got it worse. Before departing for South Africa she tweeted to her 170 or so followers a very racist and frankly unfunny joke about contracting AIDS. When she arrived at her destination she found that she was now the global top trend on Twitter and had tens of thousands of replies waiting for her, most of them abusive, with a sprinkling of death threats and calls for her to be fired, which she was. Was she offensive? Yes. Ignorant? Definitely. Did she deserve to have her life practically ruined by social media outrage which made mainstream headlines? No, that’s just crazy.

Recently, Ala Burzeba, a candidate for the Canadian liberal party, was forced to resign when tweets she posted as a teenager came to light, largely thanks to supporters of the opposing party. In these, she had fought with pro-Israeli and right-wing tweeple using what one may describe as colourful and certainly politically incorrect language. She later apologised for the posts and pointed out that her views had changed, but the damage was done and her political career was effectively dead before it had even begun. And rightly so, because when have any of us ever been politically incorrect online? That’s just crazy.

There are other dangers too, as illustrated by a recent video showing some degenerates harassing a woman on Aug 14. While this video provoked deserved outrage and launched at least four blogs, one Facebook page went a step further and posted the identity and phone numbers of one of the harassers. Only there’s a strong chance they got it wrong or deliberately wanted to direct people’s anger at a specific target. Now the person in question has deleted his online accounts, thanks to a barrage of threats from people not willing to entertain the possibility that they may have gotten it wrong. Because how can anyone question information posted online? That’s just crazy.

These practices are popular because nothing feels quite as warm and fuzzy as being part of a mob. If one could actually bottle the intoxicating brew that is self-righteousness I wager one could put Murree Brewery out of business.

Granted there are people who should be called out, but this has to happen within an ethical framework. If that sounds boring, how about self-interest? All of us have, at one point or another, said or done something stupid or embarrassing. It could have been out of anger, ignorance or just because we were having a bad day and needed to vent. Imagine if all those instances were stored and recorded, waiting to be used against you. Would you be able to handle it? Should you have to?

Pitchforks are fun to brandish, but taken too far this pressure to neuter our every word for fear of offending whatever the current politically correct norms are will result in a world where social media posts are as bland as baby food. Now that would be really crazy.

The writer is a member of staff.

Twitter: @zarrarkhuhro

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2015

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