NPR’s Fresh Air: how Twitter viciousness crossed over into our family’s real world

Last updated on: October 27, 2016 at 8:22 am by Nancy French

NPR’s Fresh Air: how Twitter viciousness crossed over into our family’s real world 2016-10-27T08:22:38-05:00 Nancy French

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My husband David French recently appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air to discuss how the #NeverTrump advocacy has affected our family — not just on Twitter (the above Photoshopped image is one of the least offensive ones I could show you) but also in real life.

The interview begins:

This is FRESH AIR. I’m Terry Gross. Twitter is one of the stars of this election cycle. Everyone is tweeting their reactions to debates and linking to articles. Donald Trump tweets provocative messages even in the middle of the night. The paradox of Twitter is that it’s become a great platform for free speech, enabling the voices of individuals and pro-democracy movements to be heard and to connect with others.

But it’s also given a platform to trolls, people who write tweets that insult, harass and threaten their targets. Last week, the Anti-Defamation League issued a report detailing the widespread use of Twitter to harass journalists with anti-Semitic messages during the 2016 campaign. Twitter executives are wrestling with how to deal with the trolls without undermining Twitter’s commitment to free speech.

A little later in the show I’ll talk about this with BuzzFeed tech reporter Charlie Warzel, who’s written a series of articles about harassment on Twitter. But first, we’re going to hear from a writer who’s received countless harassing and threatening tweets. David French writes for the conservative publication National Review and is a senior fellow in its think tank arm, the National Review Institute. He has been and is still being trolled for his critical comments about Ann Coulter, the alt-right right and Donald Trump.

He’s part of the Never Trump movement. And Bill Kristol even suggested that French consider running as a conservative alternative to Trump early in the campaign.

Listen to it below:

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