Over here in the UK a long-running investigation has been taking place into the actions of the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid the News of the World. Around two years ago it was discovered that the paper had hired private investigators to hack the phones of celebrities in order to extract salacious gossip – however in the past 72 hours the spat has exploded into a full-blown national emergency after it was revealed by The Guardian that the same phone hackers also accessed the voicemail of a murdered school girl, senior police officials and the families of military personnel killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Aside from the obviously repulsive behaviour of the private investigators and the tabloid’s editorial staff, the revelations have provoked a social media backlash more pronounced than any in recent memory.
Within hours of the accusations coming to light Facebook groups had been set up, now sporting many thousands of members, and Twitter was ablaze with outrage. The names of the News International executives involved and the hashtag #NOTW quickly took over the UK’s trending items list, at one point even eclipsing a war raging between Justin Beiber and Lady Gaga fans.
By the next morning the focus had been shifted onto the companies that advertised in the News of the Word. Web pages were set up set up featuring auto-tweet buttons allowing users to express their displeasure with the brands spending mony to advertise in the beleaguered publication, and a spreadsheet with the email addresses of company CEOs was circulated on Twitter, allowing members of the public to contact them directly.
Although this kind of activism rarely gets very far, by the middle of Wednesday Ford had announced they were withdrawing their advertising spend from News of the World, soon followed by utility company NPower and the Lloyds Banking Group, the UK’s largest financial institution. By the end of the day a veritable avalanche of advertisers had publicly announced their withdrawal from the newspaper, Mitsubishi even going one better and donating their marketing costs to a children’s charity.
The Prime Minister bowed to pressure and announced a new enquiry into the phone hacking allegations would be set up – however stopped short of criticising the Murdoch media directly, who are traditionally his close allies.
Many in the US this week have been claiming President Obama’s Twitter Town Hall marks the social service’s entry into the big leagues. Given how many large corporations and politicians have been humbled by activity on Twitter this week in the UK, we can’t help but agree with you.
