The state of social media today was once again shown up when a journalist from The Athletic was abused for something that he hadn’t actually done.
Adam Crafton took to Twitter to show off a series of messages that he had received after apparently asking a question relating to human rights in Saudi Arabia at Eddie Howe’s opening press conference as Newcastle United manager.
There was just one problem. Crafton wasn’t at the event.
He noted that ‘Saudi Twitter’ had put around the rumour, and within minutes, his social media was flooded with abuse.
Colleagues and fellow journalists alike were quick to offer their messages of support, though it is a worrying turn of events indeed.
So, I am not at Eddie Howe’s press conference but Saudi twitter has put round that I asked Howe a question on human rights (I didn’t even attend!). In the space of about 10 mins, this is the state of my mentions and DMs. Extremely weird. (And this is a small sample size) pic.twitter.com/e02dMPxbHt
— Adam Crafton (@AdamCrafton_) November 10, 2021
Is this likely to be the response to any journalists that do actually want to ask such questions during the course of the season?
Crafton’s revelations are just another example of the work that social media companies need to do in order to stop such incidents from occurring.