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Laurie Penny

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Laurie Penny wins Editorial Intelligence "Twitter Public Personality" award

A statement in absentia.

By Laurie Penny Published 18 October 2012 8:25

I'm really sorry I couldn't be there in person to accept this award, and I'd like to thank everyone who voted for me, as well as Editorial Intelligence for nominating me. Social media has been an energising and empowering force for the British commentariat, rearranging some of the old hierarchies and allowing young people and those outside the mainstream press to amplify voices that would otherwise go unheard.

Unfortunately, over the past two years social media has also become an increasingly hostile place for women writers and journalists, as well as for writers of thinkers of colour and of different faiths. I know of a number of talented women writers who have withdrawn from the arena of public debate in Britain because of the sheer scale and viciousness of sexist bullying that has come to poison the arena of political debate in this country, particularly online.

I would like to use this opportunity to call upon all of the editors, journalists and commentators in this room to take an active stand against sexist trolling and hate speech in your publications and on Twitter. Call it out whenever you see it and refuse to host it on your websites, because it demeans and cheapens all of us who feel proud to call ourselves members of the British press. Thank you.

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15 comments

Wed, 2012-11-14 14:35 — arright (not verified)

"Social media has been an energising and empowering force for the British commentariat, rearranging some of the old hierarchies ... to amplify voices that would otherwise go unheard."

Absolutely! What a welcome respite from those old heirarchies it is that now, thanks to social media, privately-educated Oxbridge graduates like Laurie Penny can at last have their voices heard.

Mon, 2012-10-22 14:42 — jankaas (not verified)

must say i am quite surprised by Laurie winning an award with such a lofty title, so i am forced to ask who came 2nd...?

Thu, 2012-10-25 00:21 — EricA3 (not verified)

They all came first, all of them. Go check for yourself. Tim Montgomery, Tom Watson, winners the lot of them.

Mon, 2012-10-22 13:00 — Sciamachy

Well done Laurie! It's sad to see that the bullying you mention appears to have got worse over the years. The first I remember hearing of it was when Kathy Sierra, author of "Head First Java" & one of the most definitive guides to SCJP/SCJD certification, felt she had to give up her blog, "Creating Passionate Users", after photoshopped images of her with her head in a noose were published on another blog. There was an enormous hoo-ha about it, and rightly so, and the police were involved I believe, and the owner of the offending blog ended up apologising to her publicly for it, but Kathy hasn't blogged since & it's a terrible loss to the Java community & to those interested in creating useful apps that make the users think "I rock with this thing!". I'd like to see editors & owners of these services report to the cops any instances where people threaten each other with violence. It is a crime, not protected free speech, and should be treated as such.

Sat, 2012-10-20 13:54 — Stuart Eels (not verified)

I would have hoped that Laurie Penny had grown up just a little in her time away but no same old same old, ably supported be the likes of Julian Morrison. I don't understand why the NewStatesman brings her back, when they have much better already in the shape of Samira Shackle and Martha Gill who should be given more freedom.

Fri, 2012-10-19 16:44 — Johnny Oak (not verified)

Laurie Penny: establishment approved. well done laurie, the liberal capitalist mainstream thinks you're great. must be so proud of yourself.

Tue, 2012-10-23 15:14 — brook (not verified)

Spot on!

Fri, 2012-10-19 04:07 — Phil Daniels (not verified)

Congrats, Laurie. I'm delighted. (Your aim is true.)

Thu, 2012-10-18 19:52 — jaded48 (not verified)

And the EU won the Nobel Peace Prize!! Which is more ridiculous?

Thu, 2012-10-18 19:49 — john cronin (not verified)

"I would like to use this opportunity to call upon all of the editors, journalists and commentators in this room to take an active stand against sexist trolling and hate speech in your publications and on Twitter. Call it out whenever you see it and refuse to host it on your websites, because it demeans and cheapens all of us who feel proud to call ourselves members of the British press. Thank you."

Translated into English:

"I would like to call upon editors, journos and commentators to censor anything which says anything howwible about silly, spoilt, irrelevant, trivial over pwivileged little madams like myself."

God, the UK leftie meeja is such an echo chamber.

Thu, 2012-10-18 11:15 — Des Demona (not verified)

Congrats on yhe award. Well deserved. But did you really have to pander to the trolls by going into a rant about cyber bullying? I always associate bullying with the school playground but then again in the realms of social media perhaps I'm not too far off the mark. If anyone wants to throw their opinions out into the ether then they have to realise there are all sorts of weirdos out there. I'm pretty sure most social media outlets have a mechanism for blocking abusive trolls - why not switch it on?

Wed, 2012-10-31 06:38 — Marc D (not verified)

Honestly, the problem is one of scale and volume. Mostly volume but also scale.

Volume: any nasty troll with an opinion can slander anyone online without consequences, most of the time. With women bloggers especially this seems to agitate a particularly nasty stratum of internet trolls who send them death threats, rape threats, etc. While it's easy to block one troll harassing you 100 times, it's not so easy to block a hundred trolls harassing you once each.

Scale: some cyber-bullying goes well beyond playground stuff -- nasty as that can be -- and descends into pure stalking and harassment. These people will find out details of bloggers' personal lives. Hopefully the police can cope with those cases as and when they arise (and they do) -- but that gives you an idea of the "worst case scenario" territory we're talking about.

All this to say that I think Penny is right to ask for the denouncing of cyber bullying. It's one thing to think someone is wrong or completely full of crap. It's another to resort to insults and threats -- especially of a sexual nature. The hypocrisy of some so-called champions of free speech is that they're prepared to turn a blind eye to some forms of cyber bullying despite the fact that it's clearly something that is designed to intimidate others into staying quiet and not participating in debate.