It is increasingly common to see scientists dropping off social media. The pattern is the same each time: they tweet an observation, or comment in an interview on some evidence from their field of study. Someone takes exception; outrage spreads. Their timeline becomes a torrent of hostility, and to escape the abuse they delete their accounts.
This is hardly unique to academics. Twitter is a bear pit. But for researchers, talking to the public is part of the job. Funders expect it. A public health crisis demands it. Yet the conversation does not always run smoothly. We have calls for Covid scientists to resign. One expert’s bio says simply: “I block.” How did it come to this?
My own brush with the Twitter pile-on happened in November when my research team, which specialises in national studies of suicide, released the first pandemic suicide rates for England. Against expectations, we found no rise.
Over the following week I received hundreds of angry tweets: insults, abuse, a few implied threats. Colleagues were astounded: surely our findings were good news? The answer, for
— source newstatesman.com | Louis Appleby | 3 Aug 2021