Monday, May 23, 2011

Why the super injunction backfired

How many people care if a celebrity is cheating on their partner. Normally only the readers of the gossip pages of the Sun or readers of Hello or OK! Beyond that, I would argue that most people don't really give a s...econd thought to it. That is, until the celebrity goes out of their way to make it one of the number one stories this week.

And so we come to a certain footballer who we shall refer to as Brian Biggs. Brian allegedly cheated with some other minor celebrity and the story got out. So Brian's lawyer went off and got a judge to gag the media which is all well and good but he also tried to gag social media. The problem is social media isn't like old media. Its a bit more wild and those who use social media like it that way. These people like the freedom of expression and when this freedom is threatened they get annoyed.

You see Brian, had you left it the way it was this would have died down, no one would remember in a week. But by angerying the world of twitter you've made this a bigger story, one that won't simple go away. Because now this isn't just being talked about by celebrity gossip lovers, its been talked about by anyone who cares about internet freedom of speech and that's alot more people. And these people know how to make a story spread. Social media moves a hundred times faster than old media and you sir, are now trending.

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