When news of the Facebook and Instagram outage swept across the globe on Thursday, it was met with almost universal trepidation. Just how would we cope without the all-pervasive social media platform?
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Happily, we can report it was a well-deserved rest. From a newsroom perspective, especially in the midst of dual election campaigns, it was nice to have a break from all the noise, most of which is being generated by trolls.
While the candidates and parties are usually the target of some pretty nasty commentary, here at the Register we often cop it as well - just for reporting the news.
There's the normal "bias" accusation - the Liberals accuse of us being Labor; Labor accuse us of being Liberal; the Greens accuse us of being either blue or red. We wear that with pride because if all sides level bias accusations at us it means we're doing our job.
Then there's the outlandish speculation about our individual political preferences. With great certainty, one commentator suggested they knew exactly how the journalists in this newsroom would vote. Just how is a complete mystery given our journalists are exposed to spin, doubletalk, weasel words and meaningless sloganeering from ALL sides of politics on a daily basis and have disdain for all in equal measure.
Another said the editor (yep, me) was a member of the Liberal Party - this comment accompanying a story favourable to Labor because it had pledged to match the Coalition's highway funding. Nothing could be further from the truth; I'd rather scour septic tanks than join any political party.
One bloke accused me of preparing for a post-journalism career as a political staffer simply because we covered the Coalition's highway funding announcement. For the record, I could think of nothing worse. Imagine having journalists at you all the time asking hard questions you'd rather not have to answer.
Some trolls are minor irritants, harmless people who chant the same slogan on every election story even when it's clear they haven't read beyond the headline.
Others hurl abuse across the political divide like annoying uni students - which is probably what they are. On some threads it's obvious the Young Liberals and Young Labor are indulging themselves in a sledge fest only they could be enjoying.
So Facebook, thanks for the holiday.