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'The Room Had Started To Smell. Really Quite Bad': Stephen Fry Exits Twitter (betanews.com)

Posted by timothy on from the humorless-phonies-at-work dept.

Mark Wilson writes: For a man so readily associated with words — and certainly for a wordsmith so enamored with technology — Twitter seems like something of a natural home for Stephen Fry. Over the years he has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers, but last night he closed his account. Fry's latest exit from Twitter (there have been several over the last few years for numerous reasons) came about because of the backlash he received for making a joke at an award ceremony. Hosting the BATFAs (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) on Sunday, he referred to costume designer and award winner (and, indeed, friend) Jenny Beavan as being 'dressed as a bag lady'. 'Offended' Twitter users attacked Fry in their droves, and he fought a valiant battle, before eventually giving up and terminating his account. It comes just days after Twitter set up a new Trust & Safety Council.

14 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. These people don't stop existing, though by gnaarly · · Score: 5, Informative

    Closing your account stops them from tweeting at you. But they are still out there.

    1. Re:These people don't stop existing, though by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So? They were their before, but it was web forums, email mailing lists, newgroups et al. Life if full of cunts, twats, and fucking morons. Social media merely gives these tossers a global voice. Ignore them.

    2. Re:These people don't stop existing, though by barc0001 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But you can also never reason with them. One of the reasons I don't use social media is I don't feel like engaging with random idiots who are either some tenuous friend of a friend coworker's cousin by marriage 14 places removed or complete strangers who just happened on a comment. Dealing with that crap can sometimes be draining even if you're only reading their comment and then completely ignoring it afterward. It takes up mental cycles no matter what, and when some of these people are trying to get a deliberate rise out of you, you occasionally feel a stab of wanting to respond to the provocation.

      Much easier to not be in that situation to begin with. For me the "ups" of being on social media and engaging with friends is outweighed by the potential for conflict with random clowns. Plus I find a lot of people on social media overshare waaaaaay too much.

    3. Re:These people don't stop existing, though by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      These people don't stop existing, though

      Well, in a way they do.

      "If you don't like the jokes stay out of the comedy clubs... If you don't like criticism stop googling yourself every 10 seconds." (Louis C.K. on The Daily Show, July 16th, 2012)

      By leaving Twitter he's no longer giving those people his ear. They don't matter to him anymore, they stop existing to him.

    4. Re:These people don't stop existing, though by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Twitter might end up looking like nothing more than a place where whiners go to whine

      I doubt it. Even Twitter's management isn't stupid enough to position themselves as a direct competitor to Facebook.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    5. Re:These people don't stop existing, though by serviscope_minor · · Score: 5, Funny

      Surely it's just as stressful dealing with all the contrarianism here.

      No it isn't.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    6. Re:These people don't stop existing, though by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well this is a whole new breed of cunt. The previous generation of cunts would call you dirty names and shit, however the new generation of cunts call themselves "politically correct" and will use clean sounding but still inappropriately placed words like "racist" "bigot" "misogynist" "homophobe" or label you as one who uses "hate speech", even when none of these terms apply to you in any way possible. In other words, the old cunts were hecklers, the new cunts are self-righteous assholes.

      In fact, here's a video of what it's like to be assaulted by a hoard of these cunts:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    7. Re:These people don't stop existing, though by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I wish it were as easy as ignoring them. These kinds of mobs are now driving policy and causing the concept of free speech to be rolled back on what is now a rather significant swath of communication on the internet.

  2. The ironic thing here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The ironic thing here is that it's very unlikely that Twitter's "Trust and Safety Council" would have sided with Stephen Fry. Remember, he insulted a Protected Class of individual, and it's therefore just as likely that he would have been banned for his remarks. He pissed off SJWs and couldn't deal with the fallout, which I can completely understand. SJWs are nasty individuals who will never stop harassing people in their supposed crusade against harassment.

    Still, this is just yet another example of what we all know: Twitter is pretty much just a platform for anonymously trolling famous people. Once it finally fails (and it's circling the drain, the Trust and Safety Council is just one example), the world will be a better place.

  3. Re:Who's Steven Fry? by JustOK · · Score: 5, Funny

    He's the guy from Futurama

    --
    rewriting history since 2109
  4. Listen to George by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.

  5. DNA by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Funny

    BATFAs (British Academy of Film and Television Arts)

    Brought to you by DNA (National Dyslexics Association).

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  6. Will Twitter's destruction wake anyone up? by Kohath · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As the politically correct SJW crybullies slowly destroy Twitter, it will be interesting to see if Silicon Valley's shallow cultural leftist elite finally wake up and start pushing back. A lot of them like Twitter and some of them invested money in it.

    The media like Twitter too, but the media are unreformable; a lost cause in every way.

  7. Re:This is why Twitter is "write only" for me by cardpuncher · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wouldn't worry about Twitter, I'd be more concerned about having a job description of "thought leader". That's just a pink slip waiting to happen.