Rowling describes social media as ‘a gift’ for the ‘malign’
JK ROWLING has described social media as “a gift for people who want to behave in a malign way”, after facing death threats online.
Police began investigating earlier this month after the Harry Potter author, 57, was sent a threatening message on Twitter after she posted her support for the author Sir Salman Rushdie.
She shared screenshots of a message from a user who had written “don’t worry you are next” in response to her tweet about the Indian-born BritishAmerican author, who was stabbed on stage in New York.
Speaking to Graham Norton on Virgin Radio UK, Rowling spoke about whether there was anything she could do to de-escalate the intensity of online conflict.
She said: “I think on one level I’m not sure I can. I’m not sure any individual can. I try and behave online as I would like others to behave.
“I wouldn’t ever want to ... I’ve never threatened anyone obviously and I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to go to their houses or anything like that.
“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.”
Rowling has consistently been the focus of “cancellation” attempts since she first came under fire in 2019 for announcing her support for a researcher who lost her job for tweeting “men cannot change into women”, and then commenting on an article that said “people who menstruate” by saying: “I’m sure there used to be a word for those people …”
Last year, her address was posted online by campaigners who posed outside her home with “Trans liberation now” signs.
Speaking about her social media use, Edinburgh-based Rowling said: “I did actually take, I think, a whole year off Twitter, or quite a long time, and then when Covid happened ... I actually didn’t go back on for the pub brawl stuff. I went back on it because I wanted to do The Ickabog so that was a children’s book for those who don’t know. And so I wanted to put it out for free and Twitter was a really good (place to do so). So I went back on for the intention of doing The Ickabog and I sort of have a bit of a love/hate relationship with it now.I can happily go for a few days without getting into a pub brawl.”
Rowling was featured in a recent 20th anniversary Harry Potter reunion special, but only in archive video clips. She told Norton she had declined the offer to appear because the programme focused on the films and not the books.