Tomorrow is the twelfth annual #PositiveXDay,* the day when we all try to be a bit nicer on the sometimes hellish social media platform. Guido and co-conspirators will be trying to engage even more civilly than normal today with everyone on X…
Maybe tomorrow you could, just for one day, try;
- to have a conversation, not a shouting match, with someone with whom you don’t agree. Caps lock off.
- post about somebody on the other side of a big debate – whose views and perspective you have learnt something from, because of how they engage.
- Share a positive experience of using X – how people rallied around to support you personally, or how it helped you spread the word about something that really mattered.
- Or just join in the discussion and show your support with the #PositiveXDay hashtag.
Social media is a little less angry than it was during the run up to the general election. Use Positive X Day to spark a broader conversation – on X and elsewhere – about how we, as users, can shape the norms that we want on social media. Help spread a bit of civility in these polarised times. X could be a place for the free exchange of information rather than the abuse of political opponents. To share your support just click this link #PositiveXDay
*Formerly Positive Twitter Day.
Today is the tenth annual #PositiveTwitterDay, the day when we all try to be a bit nicer on the sometimes hellish social media platform. Guido and co-conspirators will be trying to engage even more civilly than normal today with everyone on Twitter…
Maybe today
- Try to have a conversation, not a shouting match, with someone with whom you don’t agree. Caps lock off.
- Tweet about somebody on the other side of a big debate – but whose views and perspective you have learnt something from, because of how they engage.
- Share a positive experience of using Twitter – how people rallied around to support you personally, or how it helped you spread the word about something that really mattered.
- Or just join in the discussion and show your support with the #PositiveTwitterDay hashtag.
Social media, or at least UK political Twitter, is a little less angry than it was during Corbyn era or in the period between the referendum and Brexit. Use Positive Twitter Day to spark a broader conversation – on Twitter and elsewhere – about how we, as users, can shape the norms that we want on social media. Help spread a bit of civility in these polarised times. Twitter can be a place for the exchange of information rather than the abuse of political opponents. To tweet your support just click this link #PositiveTwitterDay
UPDATE: Guido’s editor appeared on GB News this morning to explain the reasoning behind the annual celebration.
Since 2012 Sunder Katwala and Guido have been promoting the idea of the last Friday in August being one day of positive exchanges on Twitter. Next Friday will be the ninth annual #PositiveTwitterDay, where we all try to be a bit nicer on the internet’s favourite pressure cooker website. Guido’s Editor-in-Chief explained to the viewers of Sky News what it’s all about…
The political Twittersphere in particular can be a horribly nasty place. None of us is immune from negativity, Guido is a repeat offender. The Brexit battles made even usually reasonable people bad-tempered; that is now largely behind us. Wouldn’t it be pleasantly calming if, for at least one day, we all tried to be nice and civil in our tweets? We sorely need to try again…
Help spread a bit of civility in these polarised times. Twitter can be a place for the exchange of information rather than the abuse of political opponents. To tweet your support just click this link: #PositiveTwitterDay…
It’s only two weeks until #PositiveTwitterDay on Friday, August 27, so this tale of trolling Twitter accounts HatfieldHandball and EnfieldVoice is timely. They were originally created to advertise the now-failed Hatfield Handball club, yet are now being used to troll Ilford South MP Sam Tarry’s political enemies. Guido wonders if keen handball player Ben Maloney – who happens to work as Sam Tarry’s Chief of Staff – might know who is behind these anonymous accounts…
In 2021 the HatfieldHandball account accused Sam Tarry’s opponent, in the Ilford South selection, Jas Athwal, of corruption:
.@Jas_Athwal must have sweaty palms after reading this, given this was his right-hand crony.
— HatfieldHandball (@HertsHandball) January 4, 2021
They were even caught handing out fake Labour Party membership cards together during the 2019 parliamentary candidate selection.
Will you be visiting him in the clink, Jas?
Grace Blakeley returns for yet another Twitter Bitch Fight bout, this time facing off against The Sunday Times‘s Hannah Al-Othman.
The opening bell rang when Blakeley quipped “rules are dumb. I got expelled twice and my life is great” in response to a thread on school discipline. Tongue-in-cheek, apparently – although it’s hard to tell with Grace, who once declared class has nothing to do with family, education, or background…
Al-Othman was having none of it. Insisting “it isn’t funny“, joke or not, Al-Othman took the first swing:
And that’s privilege for you. If you’re working class & are expelled, it’s likely to change the course of your life forever.
— Hannah Al-Othman (@HannahAlOthman) July 4, 2021
PRU — groomed by older, badder kids — criminality — prison etc. https://t.co/FYHnhAWHki
Never one to back down from a fight over class and privilege, Blakeley immediately pushed back:
https://twitter.com/graceblakeley/status/1411621020348432384Fortunately, Al-Othman decided not to get dragged into the weeds over what Blakeley understands class and privilege to actually mean. Instead, she simply said:
Parklife!
— Hannah Al-Othman (@HannahAlOthman) July 4, 2021
This apparently pushed the fight straight into the gutter, with both combatants going back and forth over who’s the more competent journalist (“Mate if you can’t understand any of the words I’ve used in that tweet you really shouldn’t be a journalist”, claims Blakeley) and who’s surrendered the moral high ground:
Grace, I wasn’t going to respond, but you kept going with your salty quote tweets.
— Hannah Al-Othman (@HannahAlOthman) July 4, 2021
I understand all the words, they just don’t sound as clever together as you they think they do. https://t.co/R1dzf6zv2P
Clearly Al-Othman hasn’t learnt from her betters that the longer the words, the cleverer your interlocutor. As ever, we’ll let co-conspirators decide the victor…
Twitter has been missing the erudite dry wit of Patrick O’Flynn – the former Express political editor turned UKIP MEP who now writes for the Spectator – for some days now. Guido has got the tale of his Twitter tribulations from him directly. Paddy fell for a phishing ruse and the hackers changed his password and email address. They had control of it for a while before Twitter alerted Paddy to the suspicious activity. Such are the benefits you might think of being a blue tick. Twitter restored the account to the rightful owner and all was well. For 4 hours…
Paddy then found his account had been suspended, and so it has stayed this week despite emails to Twitter HQ in San Francisco. Whatever the hackers did presumably triggered a belated ban. Paddy is famously polite and gentlemanly on Twitter so surely it could not be a violation by him for perhaps gently mocking Lord Adonis? Guido and thousands of his followers would like to see him restored to his pomp and our timelines…
