The Trafigura case is one which brings to light the extreme openness of today’s social media. Could this be a sign of things to come? As more public sites become available, will less and less information be kept out of the public sphere? Perhaps the boundaries between private and public spheres are now merging to the extent that we do not find out events by decision and control of institutions. Instead we seek them out ourselves; even information we were never meant to find out.
To move away from online media for one moment, the fact that such an awful incident occurred in the first place is one which baffles me. After Trafigura’s vessel discharged waste material onto the Ivory Coast, 16 people died, allegedly from exposure to this waste, and more than 100,000 have sought medical attention. However, to consequently attempt to keep this quiet is understandable and taking out a super injunction would appear an effective idea, had it not been for today’s social media. The growth of sites such as Twitter subsequently led to Farrelly’s question being bounced around for 16 hours, until eventually the incident was ‘out there’ so the super injunction on The Guardian was lifted. How small does the world suddenly seem when Stephen Fry adds to the conversation that any of us can be part of: “Carter-Ruck caves in! Hurrah! Trafigura will deny it had anything to do with Twitter, but we know don’t we!”
What we need to ask is: is this such a good thing? Super injunctions, in many cases, are put in place for good reason. Online conversation and constant updates are ideal for discussing current issues and news which are already ‘out there’. However, I find it more unnerving than anything else, to think that Twitter has the ability to override a decision to keep information secret. With the Trafigura case, people are triumphant and feel they have achieved a great victory for free speech and so on. Many people will of course feel positively about it, as what happened at the Ivory Coast was totally wrong. But, what about when it is personal details on members of the MI5? Or intrusive information on someone closer to home? There has to be some boundaries in this online world. However exhilarating free speech may be, there is always some information that is not supposed to be made public. At the rate our ‘Tweeters’ are going, will anybody retain their privacy?
November 3, 2009 at 5:50 pm |
[...] me think Twitter is perhaps not the most positive revolution of all time. As I mentioned in my Trafigura post, some information or opinion just does not need to be [...]