An acquaintance just lost his job and his wife left him.
Why did it happen? He did not go to an appropriate chat for that, he did not use tinder or something like that. He used FB Messenger. He was in several groups in very closed communities. He did ask to some of those acquaintances for a chat, backing off if they said no and he did not press the issue any more. He was not unfaithful to his wife, at least in the physical sense (although the fact that he liked to have that kind of conversations with other women is open to debate…”is sex chat infidelity?”).
He used his real name (his full name), he posted photos of himself, and even mentioned where he worked in his FB data. Pretty much what everyone in Facebook does, sharing too much information about himself.
This weekend one of those acquaintances published some screen captures of those chats in all the FB groups he belonged to, and some of these screen captures were edited (is very noticeable if you look closely). He was banned from those groups, not even given the chance to defend himself or presenting the real screen captures. Someone called to his job (he is a public servant), denounced him for harassment, and he lost his job. They even called his wife. They even expected him to call this girl to offer his apologies and try to solve the issue privately and recorded the call.
Did he commit mistakes? Yes, quite a lot of them.
Did he harass? I think he did not, but that is between the girl that accused him and he.
I just want to point out the fact that Social Media is a very dangerous place. Becoming too public leaves you very exposed. Nevertheless, people love a good witch trial and they are eager to grab torches and pitchforks. Some of those groups are very misogynistic in nature, but when the information leaked, they banned him and made the witch trial themselves, now they are on their high morality horse and smelling like roses.
So, be careful with social media. Remember why privacy and anonymity are so important.
Photo courtesy of Freepik
