There is a sickness to the Internet that needs to be fixed and cured:
After his team's loss to Oral Roberts in the NCAA Basketball Tournament on Friday, Ohio State forward E.J. Liddell says he was the victim of threatening messages on social media.The 20-year-old, who finished with a team-high 23 points, missed a free throw in the final seconds of No. 2 seed Ohio State's 72-75, opening round loss to 15th seeded Oral Roberts."Honestly, what did I do to deserve this? I'm human," Liddell wrote on Twitter after the loss, with images of two separate threads of messages he says he received."Comments don't get to me but I just wanna know why. I've never done anything to anyone in my life to be approached like this," Liddell wrote. "This is not me saying anything negative about Ohio State fans. I love you all dearly and I've felt nothing but appreciated since the first day I stepped on campus."
Online comments need to be associated with the actual person who makes them. The people saying these things--and I'm not posting the screenshots because they represent a particularly twisted sort of person who should be moderated into oblivion--are as wrong as they could be.
We already know that there is a serious problem with how women are treated online. No one should be subjected to this kind of abuse, regardless of what they have done in the public sphere. It's just a basketball game. The act of hiding behind a screen and ruining this kid's life over a mistake made in an amateur athletic event should be something that is easy to track down, prosecute, and end. And I realize that the person making these threats is usually underaged and immature, but this has to stop. The threats made to women are often terroristic and driven by unhinged rage. These threats, directed at a college kid, are just beyond the pale as well.
I'm all for the limits that are needed, the changes in the technology, and the struggle to reconcile free speech that has to happen here. I think that, at another point, I would have argued that we cannot limit free speech on the Internet. Those days are long gone and the self-regulating possibilities were abandoned long ago.
All in all, what a disgusting thing. It has nothing to do with being a fan. It has everything to do with letting the most twisted kind of human being have more power and access than they should ever be allowed.
