Aunty Helen shows social side
Block and report people who make personal attacks over social media, says former prime minister Helen Clark, a regular user of Twitter and Snapchat.
Speaking in Nelson yesterday at a Young Enterprise Scheme gathering at the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, Clark told a crowd of about 60: ‘‘You’ve already been Snapchatted.’’
In response to a question about how she managed personal attacks, Clark said bullying had always been a fact of life.
‘‘Social media has given them new licence to be unpleasant,’’ she said. ‘‘It can be so extreme.’’
The former United Nations Development Programme administrator said her advice was to ‘‘get these people out of your life’’.
‘‘You have blocking and reporting functions on these sites,’’ Clark said. ‘‘Don’t tolerate it and don’t think in some way you’re at fault or that any of the things they say about you are right.’’
She drew laughter when she outlined a ‘‘really ridiculous’’ news flash she received on Wednesday evening ‘‘where a fella I’ve never heard of, who’s now apparently a presenter on The Project on TV3, did a direct appeal saying: ‘Helen Clark blocked me from Twitter and I’ve never abused her and please, Helen, let me back on’.’’
Clark was likely referring to comedian Guy Williams, who appeared on The Project as the fourth host on Wednesday evening where he said Clark had blocked him on Twitter.
Williams said he had never tweeted Clark or anything about her.
Clark said she did not block many people.
‘‘I do mute some who are a bit annoying,’’ she said. ‘‘They don’t know that you’ve muted them but they do know when you’ve blocked them and sometimes they get little campaigns, like this one, to get you to have them back.’’
She only ever blocked people who were abusive or crude ‘‘so he’s done something’’.
Clark said she had looked at comments on Facebook that day after an interview she had given. ‘‘You’ve no idea how awful these people are so it’s the sort of thing: ‘Why doesn’t the old b---- go back to New York’, ‘why do we have to listen to this old bat’.’’
Clark said she just laughed and on one post she said: ‘‘Oh, the trolls are out today’’ and on another: ‘‘Tolerance of each other and respect for views of the speakers that may not mirror your own is actually pretty basic to a democratic society.’’
The Q&A session at NMIT was the first of two planned for Clark in the Nelson-Tasman region on Thursday.