I have chosen to look at the tweets sent to Tom Daley during
the Olympics this year from Tweeter Rileyy_69.
This case created a lot of media attention and multiple
articles in tabloid and broadsheet newspapers. The police became involved (due
to the tweets that were deliberately threatening ‘I’m going to drown you in the
pool’) although no charges were brought.
The reason these tweets are interesting is because they
flout many of the Taboos that society has set and that are outlined in Allan, K and Burridge, B (2006) ‘Forbidden
Words: Taboo and the censoring of language’, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge such as the Taboo of swearing, insult, death and killing.
He uses very offensive language to insult Daley, calling him
‘a over hyped prick’, a ‘cocky twat’ and claims ‘people like you make me sick’.
But what is perhaps more uncomfortable
is the personalisation of the comments and threats – he uses nicknames, ‘tommy’-
and personal pronouns -‘ I am going
to drown you’ and ‘hope your crying now’ which seems to make
the threats and comments not only more personal but more real.
The Tweets
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