Khalid Al-Sulaiman

Okaz

 

On social media websites, users are able to impersonate anyone they wish and pretend to belong to certain groups, countries or even tribes. This is because there is no way of verifying the information that one posts about oneself on the Internet.



Once such information has been posted, a person can go around sowing seeds of sedition by posting provocative tweets about sectarian, racial or ethnic issues. The person can even provoke sports fans. For example, he could easily write a provocative tweet about a certain player or match.



Some websites take advantage of the passions people have for football and post comments about matches. These comments create a lot of problems among football fans. Things get out of control and many people get hurt.



This is what is happening on Twitter. Twitter is more dangerous than other websites. A racial or sectarian hashtag can wreak havoc and instigate sedition in a matter of seconds. The majority of people tend to react quickly to such tweets and never stop and think who could have or would have made them, what the purpose was and whether they are accurate.



It is sad to see journalists reacting fanatically to such tweets before verifying their source and who published them. Instead of extinguishing the fire, journalists add fuel and make things worse.



I suggest that we do not engage in battles on Twitter. Let us exercise more caution when reacting to tweets. The use of racial and sectarian terms can be as dangerous as using a sword.