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Celebrities forced to delete their Twitter accounts due to cyber-bulling
Other | Wednesday 22nd August 2012 | Osh
Social networks were supposed to be an easier way to communicate, to share, to let others know what we think, what we do and even get in touch with our idols, which before was kind of impossible.
Our only chance was to send a letter to an address and keep praying and waiting for our idol (or the person assigned to do this task) to answer. Twitter makes the whole process so much easier and enables us to have the delusion that celebrities are our mates, as we can send them a message and “maybe” get a reply. But as with many other technical improvements, Twitter can also be used for bad purposes, and has become now a playground for bullies, trolls and stalkers. Many celebrities suffer the consequences of this “easy access” to them. Most of them have Twitter accounts because it’s a cheap way of getting visibility, but of course the other side is that they are exposed to criticism and any kind of insult that can be written in 140 characters.
The latest victim of Twitter’s trolls has been One Direction's Zayn Malik, who deleted his Twitter account due to him being "sick of all the useless opinions and hate that I get daily". So I guess now more than five million of his followers should find another way to find out what their idol is doing at any given time. Another case is former X Factor contestant Cher Lloyd, who recently had to walk off stage after someone threw a bottle of urine at her during her set at the V Festival. So she is now being bullied both on and off-line. She confessed: 'I must get at least ten tweets a day saying I'm a dirty pikey. I think they know it's going to get to me, or because they know they can”.
Even though they are faceless individuals, it’s hard not to take it personally, and some egos can’t just handle it, like Blue Peter presenter Helen Skelton, who decided to close her account declaring: "I don't have very thick skin after al,l so I am closing my twitter account”. Whereas some others are stronger, and resist the cyber-bulling for the sake of their followers, like Channel 4 presenter Kirstie Allsopp who refused to leave the social network, but told her 235,000 followers: "I will not accept being told to shoot my own womb or bleed to death with a spade in my vagina by anyone. Bullying is unacceptable."
The rules of fame are changing, and now feedback is everywhere, so if celebrities want to keep being visible, all they can do is swallow their pride and turn a deaf ear to foolish comments.
By Laura Vila
