Alastair Stewart’s front page departure from ITV on the back of a terrible twitter exchange, in which he (quite possibly inadvertently) quoted a piece of Shakespeare (odd thing to do on twitter in the first place….) to someone who understandably took it to be a racist comment. We obviously don’t know the background but we suggest we should all be following the rules below. If you’re high profile this is an imperative.
1. Don’t get into arguments on twitter - It’s a bizarre way to interact with strangers – even if you are goaded into doing so.
2. Read everything you tweet very carefully at least twice. Beware of impulse tweets.
3. Trust your instincts – if you are in any doubt about sending a tweet, don’t do it, or at least wait a while. Perhaps even ask someone you trust to look at it first
4. Remember, once it’s gone, it’s gone – most deleted tweets from a prominent person will be screenshot immediately and retweeted multiple times. There’s no going back in other words
5. Never, but never, tweet when you’re over the driving limit