If you share a name with someone on Twitter, you had better hope that someone is a paragon of virtue. If they are not, you may find yourself fending off all sorts of abuse.
That’s what happened this week after Jacaranda FM DJ and SuperSport presenter Darren Scott was lambasted by the public and in the media for using a racial slur against a colleague.
Outraged Twitter users decided to vent their anger and tell him exactly what they thought of this behaviour. But, as it turns out, it was two Darren Scotts, both living in the United Kingdom, and a Darren Shortt, living in Oman, who became the targets of their abuse.
Our local Darren Scott tweets under the name @JustPlainTwit (a name that, given his recent behaviour, seems to be quite fitting). But, when searching for “Darren Scott” on Twitter, his account does not come up immediately, and those frantically looking for somewhere to point their anger were probably too impatient to read the short bios that accompanied the first two accounts that do come up. @darren_scott is a “Journalist, geek and trash merchant. Editor of GT (Gay Times) @gaytimesmag” and @darrenscott is, oddly enough, a DJ for a small English radio station. A third Twitter user, @darrenshortt, also a DJ, was also incorrectly targeted.
@darrenscott has yet to respond to any of the angry tweets that have come his way. These include “U cant use K-word in an argument n then say “but m nt a racist” ther after!”, and one has to wonder if he has any idea what the “K-word” is at all. @darren_scott responded to some of the tweets that came his way by saying: “The only K word I fling about ends in Minogue”.
In fact, @darren_scott seems to be enjoying the unexpected publicity. He recently tweeted: “Am I still trending in South Africa? If so, please could you pass on a message to everyone to buy the new issue of @gaytimesmag? X” and “Hello to all my new followers from South Africa. I hope you like camp old women and rants about London transport”.
Seems only fair, seeing that he has been told many times since last weekend that people are “very disappointed” in him. As one South African tweeter put it: “He was planning a nice day, till S.Africans started with him.”
As for poor @darrenshortt, he has to put up with abuse from people who, it would seem, can’t spell very well. As he tweeted recently: “Wtf Thanks to Darren Scott and people that can’t read I gained loads of new followers that now DM me hate mail #darrenscott #learntospell”.
It’s not the first time tweets have been directed at the wrong person. @davidcameron, an American whose bio states that he “is NOT the prime minister”, was harassed for comment as London was looted and burned by rioters. He eventually tweeted “Attention UK people, I have no comments on the recent riots in your wonderful country. Please leave me alone.” He has recently been asked for his opinion on transport in London, but has yet to respond.
Similarly, a United States woman who tweets under the name @theashes was flooded by hundreds of cricket-related tweets as the Ashes Test series played out earlier this year. She was also followed by thousands who thought that she could provide score updates. Confused, she tweeted “What the hell is a wicket?”, eventually tweeting “I am not a freaking cricket match!!!”. In response an online campaign (get @theashes to the Ashes) was started and Qantas Airlines flew her to Australia to watch the end of the series.