Chidimma Adetshina. (Official_misssa/Instagram)
Social media has been particularly painful to endure of late.
Take the Islamophobic protests across the United Kingdom, the identity furore that dragged behind Algerian boxer Imane Khelif at the Olympics, and the xenophobic abuse hurled at Chidimma Adetshina in South Africa. These three disparate incidents are rooted in malevolent distortions of the truth. They share an impatience with the process of fact collection and fair analysis.
What we have watched over the past two weeks is the sacrifice of nuance.
The media has long rallied against fake news and disinformation — undeniably real dangers of society. But what is often understated is the power of framing and delivering information. Or, in a word: context. A narrative paved with cherry-picked facts can be more insidious than thumb-sucked particulars.
No sooner had Khelif’s second-round opponent left the ring in tears than outrage was drummed up by speculation. The bit-part story that was broadcast — wilfully by some, incompetently by others — fed the vitriol until it was soon uncontrollable. Hate can rarely be rebottled after the cork has come off.
Imane Khelif competes against Anna Luca Hamori of Hungary in the women’s 66kg quarter-final boxing match at the Paris Olympics on 3 August. (Mehmet Murat Onel/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The UK is confronted with that reality. The far-right rioters are untroubled by updates to the circumstances that ostensibly first put them on the streets — the murder of three girls — as they continue embarking on anti-migrant and racist protests. The fire will continue to burn as long it is flamed by tabloid kindling.
Gayton McKenzie pounced as soon as questions of Adetshina’s nationality and her eligibility to enter Miss South Africa began to circulate. He has played off his calls for her paperwork as innocuous acts of officialdom, insisting he has a duty to investigate. But any politician in his position knows better; knows the incendiary effects of his suggestions.
Our social media masters are not going to save us. Elon Musk has been as egregious as anyone, resharing spurious notions with reckless abandon. Mark Zuckerberg might portray himself as more measured but he is the spiritual architect of the algorithms that ensure provocative content floats to the top of your timeline.
We have to help ourselves. As readers and consumers we have to fall back in love with nuance. We cannot accept anyone’s narrative at face value and should ruthlessly scrutinise any knee-jerk reactions that are flung our way. Those of us in the media have the responsibility to not dump anything into the public domain until we have aligned the facts and considered them appropriately. The health of society, both globally and in South Africa, is too important to sacrifice in a race to be first.
The maelstrom of hate has been vicious of late. But we have the choice to get out at any point.