This may not seem like a publishing topic at first, but please bear with me.
A few weeks ago, a dentist did what many wealthy westerners have been doing for a long time. He went on a big game hunt.
Yes, I know there are peculiar details about this particular hunt (which the dentist might not have known about), but the reason this particular big game hunt is unlike all other big game hunts is that it became the outrage of the week on social media.
The dentist’s life will never be the same again. No doubt hundreds of other big game hunters did much the same as this notorious dentist. But he drew the wrong number in the Internet rage lottery, and he’s the one we’ll remember.
In another tale of Internet rage, hackers threatened to expose user data from Ashley Madison, a website that purports to help 31 million men violate their marriage vows with 5 million women. The website didn’t bow to their demands, so the hackers allegedly posted data on all the wannabe adulterers who use the site.
(At this point I don’t think we know — and we may never know — if the data is genuine.)
Internet rage-justice stories are part of the culture now. So-called “social justice warriors” combat “sad puppies” over Gamergate. Memories Pizza gets scolded for something they didn’t even do. And what Lena Dunham did or didn’t say might end up on the evening news.
It’s kinda weird.
Some people believe “the Internet is just an outrage machine.” (See Two Theories of How To Break the Web’s ‘Rage Machine’) And they may be right.
So what does all this have to do with publishing? Too much, I’m afraid.
The internet has become fundamental to publishing, because the internet is basically one big publishing machine. Sure, there are other things on the internet, like e-commerce, but a lot of internet traffic is about creating a place for people to share and consume information.
And rant about it.
Almost any discussion of publishing, or a new product launch, will involve a social media strategy and how to promote the content (or the product) on the internet. Whether they like it or not, publishers are now swimming in a pond full of angry aspergers kids with keyboards.
The Internet Rage Machine hangs over the heads of publishers like a sword of Damocles. Make one misstep — or, forget that. Do one thing that can be demagogued as a mistep — and your reputation is gone.
“But,” you think, “we just publish boring tax information. Why would anybody get upset with us?”
Remember Brendan Eich, who was cast out of Mozilla for private donations he made to a social cause?
The mob justice on the Internet might not care about your product or service, but only about something one of your officers did (or didn’t do) years ago. It’s unpredictable and it’s dangerous.
Every company — in fact, every person — should have some fear of the randomness of internet rage, but I think publishers need to be particularly careful since they are out in it by necessity.
At this point you’re probably hoping I’m going to offer a solution.
Sorry, I can’t think of one. Internet “justice” is like an armed, wandering madman, ready to strike the random fatal blow.
The only solution I can think of is to have enough cash reserves to ride it out if you draw the wrong card and the world comes crashing down on your head.