UK football (soccer to us in North America) star Ryan Giggs cheated on his wife and two kids with reality TV personality Imogen Thomas (pictured at left).
He did what anyone else in this situation would do who wanted to own up to the errors of his ways: he took out a super injunction in a UK court to prevent the media from discussing it, his wife from finding out and then sued Twitter when info did get out.
Simply put – stupid, interesting, salacious actions of individuals will travel faster than ever before thanks to social media in spite of regional laws.
We saw this with political uprisings in Egypt, Twitter battle between the Rwandan President and British Journalist, Canucks girl flashing her boobs and now the extramarital affairs of a footballer in the UK.
Social media is not the first “communications tool” allowing information flow to circumvent court orders.
Here in Canada in the 1990s with the Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka case, details of the proceedings were banned from Canadian publication. Yet near transcripts appeared in UK and US publications.
Fast forward to 2011 and social media amplifies and quickens the broadcast of news – it does not create it. Of course this brings up the question of privacy, reporting election results, etc but that is a piece for another time.
In short Ryan – and to use the British vernacular – your boorish antics were those of a ruddy wanker. Social media did not cause your actions but certainly allowed the world, your family and children know the type of person you truly are.
Good on you mate!
Here’s my interview with Sabrina from Mountain FM in beautiful Whistler, BC.
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