The fatal click

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

Be careful what you like where others can see you.

In 2023 the playwright David Greig had to apologise to staff at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, where he was artistic director, for being “careless and harmful” after “liking” two tweets that a writer alleged were transphobic.

Yes children that’s right, there are people monitoring what you “like” (i.e. what you register your liking of or agreement with or respect for by clicking the “Like” button on one social media platform). Who knew anyone had the time? Let alone the inclination? Let alone the malice and stupidity and feeling of entitlement to tell all of us what we can and can’t say or even “like”?

Comments

5 responses to “The fatal click”

  1. Your Name's not Bruce? Avatar
    Your Name’s not Bruce?

    Who knew anyone had the time? Let alone the inclination? Let alone the malice and stupidity and feeling of entitlement to tell all of us what we can and can’t say or even “like”?

    And here I thought the Stasi had been put out of business with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Silly me.

    Imagine what things would be like if this lot had even more power than they do now.

  2. Tim Harris Avatar
    Tim Harris

    Greig is a very good playwright. Some friends of mine put on an excellent production of a play of his in Japanese translation here some years ago. I was appalled when I heard that he had been ritually humiliated in this way – but in Scotland this sort of thing, which has been backed by the SNP for years, is, it seems, all too common.

  3. Catwhisperer Avatar
    Catwhisperer

    I’m left-handed, which means I touch the left side of my phone screen to scroll, so I accidentally “like” things on facebook all the time because right-handed people decided to put the react buttons on the left. Presumably to prevent people accidentally “liking” things all the time.

    Just putting that here in case anyone ever needs an excuse ;)

  4. NightCrow Avatar
    NightCrow

    Here are the tweets for which he was bullied into apologising:

    One read: “Lads and lasses in the trenches fighting the gender madness – what is the best (very recent) example you can think of that shows how we have won this crazy war?”

    The other referred to two recent high-profile but separate cases involving the police. It read: “If you are a 16-year-old autistic girl who says someone looks like a lesbian you will be arrested and held in custody, but if you are a 26-year-old man who punches a woman twice at a women’s rights rally, you will just be cautioned.”

    Rosie Aspinall Priest, an artist and researcher, shared the two liked tweets, alleging that Mr Greig was “openly liking transphobic tweets.”

    “Really awful things on display here that do not align with the values inherent within Scotland’s theatre sector,” she said.

    Soon after Mr Greig deleted his account.

  5. Ophelia Benson Avatar
    Ophelia Benson

    Rosie Aspinall Priest acts like a priest. Not in a good way.

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