Some readers may have noticed a certain amount of abusive behaviour in recent days from Sergio Perez’s fans.
F1 values Mexican supporters for their passion. You feel that energy at the circuit in Mexico City and it’s great. But some of the fans take things too far.
In the last Green Notebook I wrote some stats showing that Perez is not doing well and mentioned a rumour doing the rounds in Singapore that he might retire to avoid being dismissed ignominiously.
I did not say the rumour was true. I just noted it was out there.
From the stats I have, it is clear that not many of the abusive fans read the blog. It is not in Spanish, so why would they? However there were some who misrepresented (or misunderstood) what was written and incited people to attack me.
I block people who incite, abuse or insult.
I welcome all those fans who can exchange views sensibly, but so-called social media all too often these days becomes anti-social media.
To give you an idea of the scale of the abuse, today we blocked the 1,000th person since this business began a few days ago. Most were overtly rude, a few “liked” an abusive comment, which for me is the same thing.
I was accused of many different things, threatened and some paper tiger even put my face on a tombstone.
I am pretty hardened to online abuse. I’ve seen worse. But the scale of the abuse in this case was amazing. One of the many things I was accused of was being a racist. I don’t hate Mexicans. I don’t hate any nation. But I don’t have Canadians abusing me when I say Lance Stroll isn’t good enough. Why is that? The abusers obviously cannot grasp the concept that I would criticise a British driver if I felt they did not deserve their place in F1. Nationality is irrelevant to me.
If I was Perez I’d be ashamed of having such fans – although I don’t care if he is or he isn’t – but one might conclude that he doesn’t mind having a pack of attack dogs defending him and thus making some people hesitate before being critical.
Followers will no doubt have noticed that I tweet less than I used to. This is because of abuse. One gets bored dealing with it.
I still write Green Notebooks and I promote them on Twitter. I will go on reporting as I have always done, trying to find the stories from inside F1 and analysing what is happening and why. However I have decided to restrict Twitter access. This doesn’t make me a coward as some of Perez’s fans suggest, it makes me someone who does not want to waste time with the abusive.
Twitter might not block the abusive and it considers things like “F*ck you motherf*cker, I hope you die soon” to be acceptable. Twitter owner Elon Musk has some strange views, but I do not accept this sort of thing. So now I tweet privately.
I have a moderator to help clear away the problem. So if you abuse me, the chances are I’ll never even see it. Think of the moderator as a sort of virtual combine harvester going along, ingesting everything and throwing out the chaff, the rodents, the weeds and so on and only keeping the good stuff…
I welcome people to the community, although I am not doing this for the numbers, I simply wish to share my passion for the sport with like-minded individuals. If you are already a follower, it will make no difference. To join the community, one now needs to be accepted. If you post abuse, you will be removed. I don’t want anyone who uses abuse – so we check those wishing to join and reject the abusive. If you use abuse on Twitter, it’s a waste of time asking to join.
For those who don’t get it, here are the blog rules. They apply for Twitter as well.
“A blog is a personal web log (hence the name). It is not a traditional news source. The aim of this blog is to amuse and inform. The theme is Formula 1 racing, but if I choose to write about windmills, taxi drivers or hairstyles in Peru, readers should not complain. I write what I think.
“I am open to intelligent discussion and I will change my view if I am convinced I am wrong. I am happy to see people air their opinions – as long as it is done in a respectful fashion. Journalists should always be objective and so the accusation that I am biased is something I find disrespectful. If you feel that way, don’t read the blog.
“Being rude and abusive will not help. Comments like that are deleted and forgotten. A good rule of thumb when writing a comment is to question whether you would say such a thing to someone’s face…”
C’est la vie…