The shockingly brutal video of the beheading of American journalist James Foley released by the the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) has gone viral. Thousands are sharing the gruesome footage online and despite some mainstream sites removing it from their portals, the video is still a magnet for voyeurs.
This disturbing state of affairs highlights the indiscriminatory nature of social media. In trying to be global citizen journalists, social media addicts many a time show an inability to differentiate between the necessary and the incendiary. While social media’s capacity to break news has its place in contemporaneity, its narcissism comes to the fore in such instances. In helping such videos go viral, ether addicts do not realise the collateral they are raising — they are empowering such terrorists to sense victory as their bestial ways gain eyeballs all over the world. This is precisely the kind of empowerment that must be denied to these conscienceless people and everyone who is guilty of helping this video go viral needs to consider this grim truth. It is necessary to grieve at the growing cruelty in this world but not in the way that empowers evil.
