Article for ConservativeHome by
What is the difference between Radio des Mille Collines and
Twitter?
What I learnt and saw first-hand in that country will haunt me
for the rest of my life. The Tutsi people were, first,
systematically demonised, then, marginalised and, finally,
murdered. As so often in human history, the Free World stood by
and let it happen.
In part, what made the mass-slaughter humanly possible were the
activities of the RDMC. Listened to by millions, the station
would broadcast regular propaganda against the Tutsis, notably
describing them as, “cockroaches”. It helped ‘desensitise’ the
Hutu population in terms of the killings they would go on to
carry out.
I thought of Radio des Mille Collines on Monday this week as, for
the first time since joining Twitter in 2009, I began a 48-hour boycott in
solidarity with Jewish groups, Jews in public life, the former
Chief Rabbi and supportive friends.
As RDMC showed, the power of broadcasting – whether it be social
media, TV or radio – can, at worst, facilitate a genocide. At
best, it desensitises those who engage with it, so much so that
they no longer see racial hatred as an offence, but merely part
of everyday parlance.
Clearly, Jack Dorsey is not Felicien Kabuga. Nor is Twitter as an
organisation encouraging genocide.
But was RDMC the early equivalent of Twitter for the Hutu
militia? Whilst the Hutus may not have had the internet, they did
have access to pocket radio. They were able to switch on and hear
‘ordinary’ folk call in to tell their stories about the so-called
horrific actions of the Tutsi “cockroach” population.
Was the ability of the RDMC to spread evil and hatred any
different to some of the vile Tweets that anti-Semites write on
Twitter, seemingly with both impunity and immunity?
In essence, the question to be asked is whether Twitter has
created a safe haven to spread hatred of Jewish people? What I
have never understood from some of these social media websites is
why the onus is always on the victim to report abuse. Why is it
that the advanced algorithms do not pick this up? Moreover, when
it is reported, especially when it comes to anti-semitism, rarely
is it followed through.
At the time of writing this article for ConservativeHome, despite
reporting an anti-semitic tweet a week or so ago, it has still
not been removed. This inaction – as exemplified in the case of
Wiley, the rapper who wrote anti-semitic tweets last week, which
are still up as I write -is why so many good people have decided
to stage a 48-hour boycott of Twitter.
Often, Twitter goes after the big high-profile cases in terms of
dealing with extremism, yet when it comes to specific and regular
instances of anti-Semitism, the social media site appears to turn
a blind eye.
Why does all this matter? In February, the Jewish
Community Security Trust reported that anti-Semitic incidents
were at an all-time high, with 1,805 cases recorded in 2019.
Online anti-Semitism made up the greatest proportion of abuse, at
39 per cent, with the vast majority taking place on Twitter.
Perhaps the management of Twitter just don’t care because they
are making so much money? Why should a few upset Jews upset its
golden applecart?
As far as I am aware, none of us Twitter boycotters have left
Twitter for good. I will still use the social media site as, on
balance, it is more useful than not. But, I have a very different
opinion of Twitter from a few years ago, when I thought the
social media site was a genuine benefit to mediakind. There might
come a time that this 48-hour boycott – a chip of ice, slipping
down the mountain – may become an avalanche. Millions of decent
people may decide that Twitter is no longer worth the candle. I
think that time could be nearer than we think.
, in the past, described countries that treat their
Jewish citizens well, as being the countries in history that were
most liberal, enlightened, democratic and having deep respect for
the rule of law. In the same way, perhaps, we can judge the
enlightenment of social media sites by the way they genuinely –
or not, as the case may be – work to combat anti-Semitism.
P.S. Readers may be interested in this article I wrote on the
Rwandan genocide in August 2008 for ConservativeHome: “How Bergen Belsen came to the
hills of Rwanda”.
