The world of anti-social media

The world of social media is turning into a decidedly hostile and well, anti-social, place.

The prominent Malaysian blogger, Raja Petra, is said to be in hiding somewhere after his run-in with the Malaysian authorities over his fiery tirades against the establishment.

In Jakarta, an Indonesian woman who complained in her blog about the shoddy treatment she received from a hospital was sued for defamation. The case was dropped by the hospital after a public outcry.

The founder of the Association of Bloggers of Singapore, Jayne Goh, is being sued for defamation by a former secondary school teacher, Janet Wong, for implying that he was corrupt on a blog entry last year.

Goh had alleged that the teacher had accepted bribes in return for allowing foreign students admission into her school. Wong sued Goh and is asking for aggravated damages because the post had not been removed since 2008.

In the US, the TSA issued subpoenas to travel bloggers Steve Frischling and Chris Elliott, demanding that they reveal the source of the security directives, which was issued right after the "underpants bomber" incident. The subpoenas were eventually dropped..

In India, politician Shashi Taroor is no stranger to controversy. An avid Twitter user, his tweets have landed him in trouble often - the most notorious one being when he declared he would travel "in cattle class out of solidarity with our holy cows!"

He had to apologise for that.

Then he tweeted his thoughts during a visit to Taj Mahal about whether foreigners should pay higher entrance fees, which led to a firestorm from his political chiefs who felt he shouldn't disagree with party policy so publicly.

The latest? His tweet disagreeing with India's new visa restrictions in the wake of disclosures about the abuse of tourist visas by 26/11 terrorist suspect David Coleman Headley.

His tweet on December 26 said, "Issue is not security vs (versus) tourism, but whether visa restrictions protect our security. 26/11 killers had no visas." His boss was displeased of course.

Yes, it's almost like a Wild Wild West out there in social media land and I suppose that's to be expected. As with anything new, anything goes in the beginning and then some form of equilibrium will come into play before the next big thing comes along and then, another disruption.

For now, the power of Twitter grows, especially in the right hands. In an article on "Why Twitter will endure", David Carr writes, "By carefully curating the people you follow, Twitter becomes an always-on data stream from really bright people in their respective fields, whose tweets are often full of links to incredibly vital, timely information."

Further "Beyond the throbbing networked intelligence, there is the possibility of practical magic. Twitter can tell you what kind of netbook you should buy for your wife for Christmas - thanks Twitter! - or call you out when you complain about the long lines it took to buy it, as a tweeter on behalf of the electronics store B & H did when I shared the experience on my Blackberry while in line. I have found transcendent tacos at a car wash in San Antonio, rediscovered a brand of reporter's notepad I adore, uncovered sources for stories, all just by typing a query into Twitter."

As for bloggers, hotels and other travel suppliers will have to learn to deal with them and sort out the legitimate ones from the ones who whinge in order to get a free stay or a refund. One hotel recently had a run-in with a prominent Singapore blogger who complained about its service in her blog. The hotel compensated but still she continued her whinge. 

In the new year, new rules will come into play but the fact remains, bloggers will gain power in the new year. Indeed, in Paris, traditional fashion journalists are up in arms because their front row seats at prime catwalk events are being taken over by bloggers.

The last word goes to Alan Mutter, media consultant and blogger, who said, "One of the problems is newspapers fired so many journalists and turned them loose to start so many blogs. They should have executed them. They wouldn't have had competition. But they foolishly let them out alive."