Advertisement

'We are not afraid', screamed social media, and for once the voices were united

#wearenotafraid trended on Twitter in the aftermath of the attack
#wearenotafraid trended on Twitter in the aftermath of the attack

Like many people in London yesterday, I watched the horrendous events on Westminster Bridge unfold in real time on Twitter. And, like many people in the media, I expected to come out of the other end feeling like I needed a shower and a drink.

As we all know, if you want the most twisted take on almost anything, Twitter is the place to find it. I spend an inordinate amount of my time reading scabrous tweets, all in the name of work; I do find myself wondering if I have a slightly awful fascination with other people’s awfulness.

But yesterday, I had a different feeling as I scrolled (and scrolled and scrolled) through my timeline. The news was entirely awful – yet the reaction to it, by and large, was thoughtful and decent and heartening. It's worth remembering that this was arguably the first major terrorist attack on British soil in the social media age. We were, to an extent, in new territory.

how social media illustrated its defiance and solidarity after the Westminster attack

Of course, there was some awfulness and crassness. The usual “all Muslims are terrorists” stuff. The usual nastiness. Donald Trump Jr’s wrong-headed, out-of-context tweet about Sadiq Khan has rightly been met with near universal opprobrium. Although, honestly, with Trump Jr, I’d have been more surprised if he’d said something nice, or nothing at all. I wasn’t that disgusted because I was half expecting it. As they say in financial markets, my disgust was priced in.

Generally though, decency and respect were the order of the day. Social media users praised the police and the emergency services. There was a lot of good, up-to-the-minute information. Sometimes it was wrong, but it was corrected quickly. People put party politics aside and Brexit barely got a mention. Even the usual line-up of professional trolls seemed oddly muted.

Of equal interest were the waves of social policing. When some users began circulating distressing images of victims on Westminster Bridge, others responded by imploring them to stop. The DJ Dan O’Connell posted “Don't retweet videos from Westminster Bridge. People do not need to see loved ones injured. It doesn't make you a journalist" – which in turn attracted a second wave of policing, as people took exception to a perceived 'holier than thou' tone. In the end, it was hard to see who had the higher hand – but at least everyone involved seemed to mean well.

In a related vein, The I newspaper’s short-lived front page, which depicted what was presumably a victim’s shoe, came in for a lot of fire. "Shame on you," cried a small chorus of tweeters. Was it really that dreadful? It was, at the very least, a striking image and I could see what they were trying to do. Decisions made in haste probably deserve a bit more understanding.

There were also some baffling tweets of the “all news is relevant to my area” variety. Who cannot have been profoundly underwhelmed by the post from one royal editor saying that the queen was “just half a mile from this possible terrorist incident”? As The Telegraph's Anita Singh commented “She's fairly safe though, isn't she? In her palace surrounded by guards.” And, incidentally, far safer than the tens of thousands of Londoners on nearby streets who were also probably pretty safe.

Perhaps the biggest non-story of all was Katie Price. She was in a car somewhere near the incident and let her followers know: “Omg I was right by Westminster when it just happened, like a scene from a film”. Naturally this was reported by celebrity news sites. She was then trolled on Twitter for being shallow and self-obsessed. That was reported too. I’m sure we’ll hear about the backlash against the backlash pretty soon. But so what? Price’s tweet seems pretty reasonable to me and, if people can wring three day’s worth of stories out of an inconsequential tweet, more power to them.

More vexing were the tweets that read “OMG, I can’t believe I was on that bridge last week. Makes you think.” In a similar vein, on Facebook, you could tag yourself as “I am safe”. Well, yes, like the 99.99995% of Londoners not involved in the incident. It’s tempting to say that this sort of behaviour is a way for kids of the#mememe generation to make the story about them – narcissism masquerading as concern – and shouldn’t your first concern be about others as you know you’re OK? Still, I’m in a forgiving mood. Let's agree to call it a knee-jerk reaction to something shocking.

The hashtag #prayforlondon came in for some flack too. Was it people virtue signalling? Wasn’t religion part of the reason for the atrocity? Why would one of the most secular cities on earth want your prayers? I’m sure there’s some truth to all three of these. But I’m also sure most of the people who used the hashtag were trying to be nice and show solidarity. If you pile on someone when their intentions are good and they haven’t hurt you, it says more about you than them.

No discussion of social media's reaction would be complete with a mention of Katie Hopkins, or Hatie Kopkins as I sometimes think of her. Here, Hopkins's line was that everyone who was carrying on as normal was in denial and that “the truth is we can’t go on like this” – even though attacks in London are rarer than they were in the 70s, 80s or 90s, and prior to yesterday, in the last ten years, there had been a single terrorist killing in capital.

London was a frightened, “cowed” city, continued Hopkins – an argument that was repeated on Fox News.

Of course, the great thing about Hopkins is that if you disagree with her, you're normally doing pretty well. Refreshingly on Twitter yesterday most people did seem to disagree with her. We sympathised with the victims, praised those who helped, and decided that the best way to stand resolute is just to get on with our lives. 'We are not afraid' was the hashtag of the day, and it encapsulated everything that can be good about social media.

 

READ MORE ABOUT: