How one tweet can ruin your life | Jon Ronson

Why HN readers recommended it

HN commenters bring it up in threads about online mobs and cancellation as a relevant talk by a journalist who interviewed shamed people.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel

TED

Topic

online shaming

Format

talk

Level

general

HN recommenders in dataset

5

HN mentions in dataset

11

Recommendation years in dataset

2018–2025

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

• Great TED talk on the original twitter kerfuffle referenced in the article: [VIDEO] CGP Grey's take on how outrage is used to exploit us through social media: (Yes, I link this often, because the message is valuable.) [LINK]

• I would hope that all agree a violent crime is worse than a racist tweet. However, there is a sentiment of sympathy afforded to murderers (that they're somehow deserving of rehabilitation) which is not always extended to those who have tweeted racist things. Perhaps this …

• A relevant TED Talk I always think of when reading about these stories: [VIDEO] Which makes me think: who are these people with enough time of their hands to be morality warriors on internet? Also who are these _friends_ who jumps on conclusion without allowing …