An Asian Christian woman living in London blogging about the everyday issues of religion

Tuesday 14 June 2011

Twat Irresponsible Blogger

By that title I am referring to the hoax blog titled 'A Gay Girl in Damascus' and the person behind it, Thomas MacMaster. The blog was supposedly hosted by a Syrian woman called Amina Arraf who lived in danger of being taken away by the security forces because she was a gay activist. The blog attracted many followers primarily because of the heartfelt sentiment and struggle expressed which captured the attention of Western supporters of the Arab Spring. On 6 June Amina's cousin posted a grave  message telling the world that Amina had been taken by security forces. Her plight attracted worldwide attention. Bloggers were posting messages calling for governments to take action.

It was all a lie. Thomas MacMaster is an American student at Edinburgh University who has always wanted to write fiction, he says, so he thought up this story. He has apologised but admits that the media attention has given him an 'egotistical kick'. He is now hoping to turn the blog into a novel and is looking for a literary agent.

There are many, many REAL humans who are living in fear of being tortured and killed for either their sexual orientation or their political beliefs or both. Their authentic voice now is at danger of being ignored because of the actions of one irresponsible blogger. Bloggers have been instrumental in getting stories out when the foreign media have been banned from reporting on the Arab uprising. We need this flow of information to know when to raise alarms and when to collectively campaign for good causes. In the absence of stringent checks on veracity, because of reporting restrictions, the world needs to be able to rely on social networking and the lone voices of people caught up in strife. Such serious breaches of trust in the blogosphere as committed in this hoax blog must not be tolerated.

4 comments:

  1. Couldn't agree more with the sentiment but just how do we sort the wheat from the chaff?
    There are a lot of very good writers among the blogging community and while we all welcome new good writers the odd 'bad penny' is easily overlooked.
    I think this particular man should be prosecuted but doubt there is any legal ground for doing so.
    I'm glad you raised this.

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  2. Hi Ray,
    I am hoping that a blogger unwritten code of honesty will suffice but I suspect I am hoping for too much.
    God bless.
    Jane

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  3. Thanks for drawing attention to this. I've been thinking that there's nothing wrong with writing a fictional blog as long as that is made very clear on the site (and perhaps each post). But this example shows how this can be misunderstood with potentially dreadful consequences - inevitable I suppose given that people may only spend a few seconds looking at a blog post.

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