Social media - the dark side

A cloudy start to a hot and humid day, 27-28C. News this morning of a far right group of activists turning up and starting a riot outside a Southport mosque, in a community still grieving death of three children and injury of ten others in the previous day's murderous knife attack. False information circulating on social media platforms asserting the perpetrator was a muslim, led to this attempt to burn down this mosque with people inside it. The police arrived and were met with vicious hostility with twenty nine officers injured. This outrage has met with universal condemnation, apart from insidious critical comments made by Nigel Farage about the limited published information available. 

Questions are already being asked about the way social media algorithms amplify contentious and unverified claims in statements posted on-line. What was once an initiative to build community and spread good-will is increasingly contaminated by ill-will. Such a naive aspiration it has turned out to be. Despite the mess and damage caused by last night's riot, citizens of Southport turned out this morning to clean up and repair. The mosque has been established there for thirty years and enjoys good-will in the community. Let's hope social media researchers will identify the originators and distributors of on-line hate speech and help the police bring them to account in a court of law.

I celebrated the Eucharist at St Catherine's again this morning. Half the regulars were absent. Unusually we were five men praying together. Afterwards, I met with Iona and we went to the Wardrobe Cafe in King's Yard for posh coffee and a catch-up chat about the Ministry Area of which she is still lay co-chair. The two Ministry Area Wardens are also women, a triumfeminate as opposed to a triumvirate. Now that's a new word to consider, not that I can imagine it being used much.

I arrived home just in time for lunch. Clare had been into town for a field of vision test, relating to her driving license application, and returned after a visit to Ashton's in the Market with a couple of large swordfish steaks for lunch. What a delicious treat! Then a siesta in the chair, but I couldn't fall asleep, so eventually a long slow walk in parks, busy with football and cricket practice and several baseball games, while I chatted to Owain on his way home from a day in the office.

After supper uploading and editing photos, and trying to rescue a single image from a one second video MP4 file which the TZ95 generates if you press the shutter button too long. It's a camera smart feature I don't understand and neither need or want. On the whole it takes good quality photos, but handling it properly has taken me some time to master. I finished the evening reading Ruiz Zafon's 'Marina', still wondering where this strange book written originally for adolescents, but loved just as much by adults apparently, is taking me.