In fact, the media in general is obsessed with hearing people’s views on subjects, regardless of the fact that they may know next to nothing about it. It seems as though every television news broadcast these days has at least 30% of the show dedicated to reading out brainless and irrelevant tweets, comments and text messages from brainless and irrelevant people. Don’t get me started on reality shows with public votes, or endless repeats of dinner / dating programmes with contestants holding up score cards. It never ends. Then you’ve got social networks, which are designed for exactly this purpose. For some reason the world is obsessed with providing a platform for free speech like it’s a religion. Now, obviously, I don’t have a problem with free speech (I appreciate the irony of this being featured in my blog), but it is incredibly naive to think that free speech is some sort of nirvana. 

In real life, there are lots and lots and lots of people I don’t like. In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say there are more people I don’t like than I like. However, in person, I try not to tell them that I don’t like them. I especially don’t stand on a soap box and broadcast to an army of followers that I don’t like them, charting graphic details of exactly why I don’t like them and why nobody else should like them either. If I did, I would expect that person to be massively offended, angry and on occasion feel the need to respond with violence. So I don’t do it. It’s rude, ill mannered and unfair. But for some reason, if you even mention that people should adhere to the same rules on social media, you are accused of espousing fascism by curtailing their right to free speech. No, it’s just that you can’t go around saying what you want when you want to about whomever you like. 

So does there need to be regulation? I don’t know, but there needs to be something. Better policing by the social networks themselves? Perhaps, but they’ll never admit it, as it will have such an impact on their advertising revenue. But if something is not done, and the social media savvy are empowered to run rough-shod over century-old traditions of written laws (i.e. don’t contact a defendant!) or century old-traditions of unwritten-laws (basic manners and decency!), then we’re going to see a lot more Giggs-gates and foolish jurors put behind bars. Something needs to be done about this now. 

**The editor would like me to point out that these are my own views rather than necessarily those of Punch Communications, and I am more than happy to do so.