When accountability becomes mob rule

Jonathan Edwards

I have thought long and hard about writing this article, not on the grounds of whether I wanted to or not, but on the wisdom of exposing myself once again to vile coordinated social media attacks.

However, as someone who has experienced on two occasions, both orchestrated by political opponents within my own former party, a social media lynching, I have a lived experience that not many can relate to and may offer an insight to the pressures Dr Arday would have faced in his final days and weeks – although I readily admit that Dr Arday faced a barrage way beyond anything that I experienced.

I offer no judgment on the events that have led to the tragedy before us. When mainstream media outlets and social media contributors engage in a feeding frenzy, I automatically disengage to protect myself from the raw emotions that continue to bubble under the surface.

What I can tell readers is this: there is nothing on earth that can prepare an individual for being subjected to an online culture where thousands of individuals can descend on one person and savage them with no consequences.

An individual in this situation is inevitably facing the meltdown of their professional career, their personal life or even both together.

Considering how we as individuals these days are deeply shaped by our vocations, when it all falls apart one’s identity and sense of purpose inevitably dissipates.

This is particularly true if you are in the public eye or if you have spent your whole life dedicated to one calling.

In my case, the police were acutely aware of the tragic events surrounding the death of Caroline Flack and wanted to protect me as much as possible during the investigation. Plaid Cymru decided to brief the press regardless.

When a lifetime of work implodes in a mini-second, it is difficult to comprehend the sense of loss felt. It’s a type of never subsiding grief. I think about the destruction of my own career every single day. It is an experience of overwhelming numbness.

Over the years I have got used to living half alive, and the only thing that can drag me back from an eternal abyss is when I concentrate on those closest to me. Acknowledging gratitude daily for the good things in my life is the only antidote.

What is particularly troubling is the way mainstream media outlets have evolved their output in the social media age. When the name of the game is ‘clicks’ and ‘likes’, not responsible journalism, sensationalism and rage-baiting dictates output.

Those items then act as anchors for individual social media users to coalesce around like piranhas in an online pile-on that appeals to the most savage basic instincts of humankind.

Over the centuries, enlightened societies have endeavoured to use the law and culture to temper these destructive animalistic tendencies, but the online media age we live in has eroded those safeguards at breakneck speed.

Does this mean that individuals should not be held to account? Of course not. But accountability is not achieved via kangaroo courts and spontaneous burning at the stake. True accountability must be achieved in an orderly and procedural manner with proportionality at its heart.

How we protect individuals is the next question and perhaps the focus of a more detailed article.

Media outlets regulated by Ofcom should be sanctioned heavily when they deliberately target an individual aimed at engaging the mob.

The difference between how the same media outlet portrays a story on TV and then online can be poles apart. News outlets would inevitably defend themselves by stating that they are merely reporting the news, but clever wordsmiths know what they are doing and understand how to stoke raw emotions to whip up a frenzy.

Online content is also particularly damaging as it lasts in perpetuity. Whereas in a bygone age, yesterday’s newspaper headlines were today’s chip paper, online stories are timeless.

This makes it impossible for individuals caught in the crosshairs to move on. The online footprint can be re-weaponised at will by bad faith actors at any time of their choosing.

Isolated

Those who have no knowledge of the full facts behind a particular case instantly accept propaganda as a truism. Like lepers in the Middle Ages, the afflicted find themselves isolated professionally and personally as other individuals and organisations are fearful of finding themselves also targeted by mob rule.

Let’s consider the impact this is all having on the justice system. The rule of law has been overtaken by the tyranny of the online minority. The online hordes often represent a small segment of society.

However, online media amplifies their voice and normal calm-headed people who understand that the world and human behaviour and interaction can be complicated are too scared to challenge when hysteria takes over. What we are witnessing is anarchy.

The tragic targeting of Dr Arday is being prescribed by the political left as an example of a racist and xenophobic right. That is almost certainly the case, but the political left cannot absolve themselves of the savagery that is befalling us. The left is just as vindictive and vicious, driven by its performative moral grandstanding.

Duty of care

Those organisations who find themselves responsible for a vulnerable individual have a duty of care. In my case I followed the disciplinary procedures and rules of my former party to the final full stop. I had been given assurances of all sorts by the professional party that I would be protected from my internal opponents. However, when it came to it, those individuals used their control of the party’s voluntary wing unlawfully, and to conceal their acts coordinated a further media onslaught.

Incredibly, by this stage I had resigned from the party’s candidate list, meaning my political career was over. Unfortunately for me this wasn’t enough for my persecutors. The professional leadership of the party in a state of panic threw me to the wolves once they felt their positions were vulnerable.

Dr Arday similarly resigned his post, ending his professional career. Yet he also found that the mob is never satisfied; their lust for damage knows no sensible boundaries. Of the 249 articles published about Dr Arday, it is reported that 188 appeared in the final nine days after his resignation.

The main agitators against me now find themselves holding the most important political positions in our country, and others were elected to the Senedd in May.

It is no surprise that individuals end up killing themselves. How I am still here after the depths I fell to is down to pure luck. One motivating factor that kept me going was that I wanted to deprive the WhatsApp groups of my internal opponents within my former party the inevitable cork popping emojis that would have followed my death.

Far more important was the sense of duty I have to my children regardless of my personal situation. They have been an enormous source of strength for me together with my partner and our one-year-old son.

Barbarism

As a society we are descending into barbarism. There will undoubtedly be many more Caroline Flecks and Jason Ardays unless the values of common decency, duty of care, proportionality and the rule of law are reasserted to withstand extrajudicial pressures. Vigilantism is supposed to be a criminal act.

It’s time for our most intelligent legal minds to come up with a solution of how our positive values can be applied to the world of online media and engagement.

Jonathan Edwards was the MP for Carmarthen East & Dinefwr 2010-24. His political career was brought to an end after he accepted a caution for an instance of common assault on his wife.

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