We are in a new age of stalking - Alex Belfield is a warning that we should not ignore ➡️ Belfield, a former radio host turned YouTuber, will now spend more than five years in prison after being found guilty of stalking four people ✍️ sarahmanavis
Why Belfield was able to operate so long – and in many ways stalk his victims at all – was thanks in part to the apparently lax attitudes of many of the big social media companies when it comes to the cyber stalking and harassment happening on their platforms.following Belfield’s sentencing, Vine emphasised how difficult it was to get YouTube to take action on Belfield’s account, saying lawyers had to get involved to see any real movement. “Even then it’s hard,” Vine said.
YouTube is not alone: Twitter has also come under fire. When Belfield first began to harass Vine on the platform, Vine was told by theto “block and ignore” – a strategy that, while understandable and good advice in one-off instances, fails to apply to stalking by someone as obsessive as Belfield. When Belfield was blocked, he would make new accounts in order to continue . And despite now being in prison, Belfield’s Twitter account remains live on the platform.
Our increasing use of social media alongside our increasing belief that it exists outside our physical lives is creating a fatal detachment This acceptance of harassment – and inability to see it as harassment – isn’t just happening to prominent public figures. On a granular level, regular people are experiencing online harassment at concerning rates, as seen through things such as the rise of burner accounts to send anonymous, threatening messages, which has become an all too familiar part of many people’s online experiences.