Concert fall-out puts limelight on legally murky area of privacy
The incident at Slane Castle has received an unparalleled reaction in both online and print media and casts the limelight on the legally murky area of personal privacy. The events have also displayed a culture of shaming and degradation of women and, in this case, a young girl, which is both misogynistic and contemptible.
Posting images of teenagers engaging in sex acts without their permission is a violation of privacy rights, and has possible legal consequences for the perpetrator.
Developments in social media in recent years have led to ordinary citizens effectively becoming producers of media content in Ireland, by the process of tweets, Facebook posts, and uploading photographs.
While this has been beneficial in many ways, lax regulation of the distribution of inappropriate content and a lack of understanding of the potential legal consequences associated with such content have contributed to the disturbing aftermath of the events of Saturday’s Eminem concert.
A video posted a few months ago, containing footage of a young girl having a drunken rant in a takeaway while name-dropping the accounting firm that her father was involved with, also went viral. Social media users quickly forgot to stop and think about the potential ramifications of uploading and sharing videos of minors with no consent.
Once identified, the girl involved in the takeaway video received a barrage of abuse on social media websites before her Twitter account was deactivated. The website later removed the video but by that point the damage had already been inflicted.
As with the images from Slane, in terms of removing the content, it has been a case of too little, too late from the social media sites involved. By the time the pictures were removed from the site, a young girl had been shamed and demoralised, and had become a national talking point. In the meantime, the website benefited enormously from visitors logging on to see what all the fuss what about.
Recent Twitter activity has seen the incident discussed in threads such as #slanegirl and #slanegirlsolidarity, with the latter created as a response to the initial slanegirl hashtag, under which a number of individuals launched tirades of demeaning and derogatory abuse at the girl.
Does referring to her as “Slane girl” as a point of reference not add fuel to the perception that these images are solely focused on her? The fact that neither males are implicated in these images, yet the girl was branded a “slut”, is indicative of a society that rejects women being open about their sexuality. Why are there no discussions with the hashtag #slaneboy”?
Uploading images to the internet creates a level of permanence that hard-copy photographs could never achieve. Web media is all-encompassing, a fact that doesn’t appear to enter the conscience of those responsible for uploading the images.
No consideration was afforded to the girl or the possibility of her being identified.
The ease by which a person can be identified online serves as a tool for those who seek to jeer and abuse other users and is another issue which creates problems.
The public nature of Twitter, unless settings are adjusted, means that users can tweet other users despite not knowing them, if the user’s account is not private.
Tweeting insults at someone (using the @ symbol) can easily be construed as a personal attack, and comments can easily be interpreted as being defamatory or abusive, yet this is considered to be a normal, and acceptable way of expressing disagreement with or contempt for someone online.
There seems to be a disconnection of sorts, whereby people have an inability to see that behind an online account is a person with feelings.
Tighter regulation of online material and its distribution is required, as is respect and sensitivity towards another human being.
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