I encountered a tweet about a suspended twitter account a few hours back. The person whose account had been suspended was speaking about the Weinstein case saying she was raped. I can not quote the tweet because I apparently have been blocked because of my tweets here:
“I -have to- ambivalent about this. Twitter is not the place. Filing charges is. Don't give people like Weinstein the ability to fight back. “
“And I know how horrible that sounds like. I need a lot more characters than 140 to make my case about this.“
I decided to write this because, as I said, I need more than 140 characters to make my case.
Yes, rape is shit and we have to speak out against people doing it, especially but not only, against people in position of power doing it. Yes we have to fight it. But* the problem with services like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, any other internet service you may think of is that they will be held accountable.
A accusation is an accusation, it can be true but also not. I am all in favour helping women in their struggle against violence but it they have to file charges. Let the media take the cases up.
In our western world it's the judicative system that judges, not the general populace. Not the media either.
The problem is, that doing it in an open forum, before the courts had a chance to even decide and judge, it's slander. If the accusation is true or not until the courts (again) decide.
Placing accusations outside a lawsuit gives the accused a chance to fight back. I honestly believe that empowers them somehow.
Emma Thompson said the problem is systematic. I just take her word for it. I can't talk about the US in depth, I never been there, but I see at least signs of it here in Germany as well.
So in short: Sure, I am with you dear women. But don't be mad at Twitter for suspending accounts. They have to and will protect themselves first.
And if I, little Cis male me, am going to be blocked by more people: So be it.
I am with you in this, but the ends don't justify the means.
* I hate this but ... I fucking hate being a "but ..." person now. But seriously, hear me out.
No comments:
Post a Comment