Last month a 16-year-old girl from one of Thailand’s wealthiest families was charged with driving without a licence and causing death by reckless driving after ploughing into a public minibus on a Bangkok toll road.
Nine people were killed and the girl’s alleged culpability was compounded when a picture was published of her idly leaning against a barrier on her BlackBerry after the accident. This led to a ‘hater’ Facebook campaign that now has 300,000 users signed up.
While a court still has to try her for the alleged offence, the social media witch-hunt has declared her guilty already. The usual anonymous poltroons have posted death threats against her, she has been threatened with rape and her contact details have been widely distributed.
This form of mob justice is easier than forming a lynch mob, which fizzles out once the incipient anger has been spent, but is more effective. Social media and the web shadow don’t fizzle out. It is there being spidered by Google for the rest of eternity.
So, in the spirit of hate mobs, I’d like to start one myself for an incident that happened long before the sighting of a social network… and that is the decapitation by a speed boat of the singer Kirsty MacColl.
In December 2000, Kirsty was scuba-diving in Cozumel, Mexico with her children in a restricted diving area when a speeding powerboat entered the area. Kirsty managed to save the life of her son, but was hit by the boat and died instantly.
The speedboat was owned by Mexican supermarket millionaire Guillermo González Nova, but it was the deckhand José Cen Yam who was charged with culpable homicide and who was able to escape a two-year jail sentence by paying a fine of £61… yes, £61.
The whole process stank and the evidence that is was the millionaire who was piloting the boat is extensive; the playboy not only walked, but his employee walked as well.
A Justice for Kirsty campaign was set up by the singer’s family, but after a BBC documentary Who Killed Kirsty MacColl and attempts by celebrities such as Bono to reopen the case, the campaign was wound up a year ago since ‘ it is unlikely that any more could be achieved’.
I disagree. Social media campaigns, be they against a Thai teenager or for a great band (Rage Against The Machine) to be Christmas Number One are extraordinarily effective and perhaps a new campaign could begin now… bringing together both of these subjects.
MacColl’s most famous song Fairytale of New York was sung with the prophet Shane MacGowan and it is the archetypal Christmas song, so the mission starts now. How about getting that song to Number One and achieving justice for Kirsty at the same time?
According to the social media measuring instrument Klout, my influence is only ’64’, but I’m sure there are some of you delicious mavens that can help. Anybody with me?
Monty Munford has more than 15 years' experience in mobile, digital media, web and journalism. He is the founder of Mob76, a company that helps tech companies raise money and exit. He speaks regularly at global media events with a focus on Africa, writes a weekly column for The Telegraph, is a regular contributor to The Economist, Wired, Mashable and speaks regularly on the BBC World Service.
