Social media is a gift for malign people: Rowling
JK ROWLING has described social media as ‘a gift for people who want to behave in a malign way’.
The Harry Potter author’s comments came two weeks after she received a death threat for posting comments of support for Salman Rushdie.
She has also been repeatedly targeted by trolls after making critical comments about the transgender lobby. Her home address was posted online last year by protesters, who stood outside with pro-trans placards.
Speaking to Graham Norton on his Virgin Radio show yesterday, the 57-year-old said: ‘Social media can be a lot of fun and I do like the pub argument aspect of it’.
‘That can be a fun thing to do. But there’s no doubt that social media is a gift for people who want to behave in a malign way.’
Miss Rowling also spoke about whether there was anything she could do reduce the intensity of online conflict, saying, ‘I think on one level I’m not sure I can. I’m not sure any individual can. I try to behave online as I would like others to behave. I’ve never threatened anyone, obviously, and I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to go to their houses or anything like that’.
But she insisted her latest book, The Ink Black Heart, the latest in her series of novels written under her pseudonym Robert Galbraith, about a cartoonist trolled online by a fan, has nothing to do with the threats she has faced.
Asked if the story had echoes of her own experiences, she said, ‘I had written the book before certain things happened to me online. I said to my husband, “Everyone is going to see this as a response to what happened to me”. But it genuinely wasn’t’.
The death threat against her this month came after she tweeted in response to the knife attack on Rushdie: ‘Feeling very sick right now. Let him be ok’. Another Twitter user replied: ‘Don’t worry you are next.’
Her views on transgender issues have been criticised by Potter stars including Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson. But she added that she was in touch with some of the cast, saying, ‘Some more than others but that was always the case.’