Why only little birds should twitter freely

My current musical hero is James Arthur. I love the passion he brings to his music. He's a talented singer/songwriter who bought much needed kudos to the jaded XFactor and his eponymous debut album  consolidated these talents and proved he is definitely not from the Cowell bland hit factory. 

Unfortunately his Twitter talents have let him down. 

So many have fallen at the Twitter hurdle, most recently Peaches Geldof, who tweeted the names of women involved in the infamous Ian Watkins case. 

Tweet in haste, repent at leisure, as many tweeters have learnt to their cost when presented with court writs.  

It's only a max of 125 characters, but even this small amount can land the writer in more hot water than a Turkish bath.  

When writing anything on social media, the writer should then become the most thorough proofreader that ever existed. After all, their words are going to be recorded for posterity, for all to see. Anything that could be construed as offensive to an individual or group of people will almost certainly come back to bite them in the bum. And if the writer is famous, the more followers they will have and therefore the more potential for offending someone. And the more potential for alienating fans. 

James Arthur got into a rap battle with a rapper on Twitter.  He ended up calling this rapper an "effing queer".  He has since apologised, saying the word 'queer' was used loosely as part of a rhyme and that he didn't mean it as an homophobic slur.  However, it has been reported that he has lost fans through this and many gay groups are up in arms.  There is even a Facebook campaign trying to get ITV to stop him appearing on the XFactor this Sunday. 

The result of this is that his management have banned him from Twitter, handing his social media communication to the capable but corporately bland hands of his record label's PR team.  Which is sad, as James was one of the few stars who used social media to engage with his fans - hell, he even re tweeted one of my tweets, and I also noticed that if fans asked him to follow them, he would do, seemingly without hesitation.  Twitter will be a dull place without him but misplaced words can unwittingly hurt so many. 

Social media may have brought the world together, but it also has the power to tear us apart.  Think before you tweet!