"A perfect storm"

I'll still maintain that my little corner of Twitter is broadly speaking a place of positivity and a source of cultural nourishment. But the platform has been an absolute horror show over the past few days: video after video of unprovoked violence against non-white people, looting of shops, hotels housing asylum seekers being torched and stormed by baying mobs.

And, as Carole Cadwalladr set out in an article for the Observer, social media is not only reflecting the chaos, disorder and hate but actively generating them, its algorithms designed to function as a "polarisation engine" that then fans the flames.

It's not a problem particular to the UK. As Cadwalladr notes, "what we are witnessing is part of a global phenomenon - rising populism and authoritarianism underpinned by deep-rooted structural changes in communication". What is most concerning, she notes, is that "although academics, researchers and policymakers increasingly understand the problem, almost nothing has been done to address it". If the current unrest doesn't prompt urgent attempts to tackle the issue in this country, at least, then it's hard to see what will.

Of course, it should be added that social media isn't the sole spark that has caused the conflagration. The mainstream media have also been complicit. It's appalling to see the Daily Mail wringing its hands in dismay at the violent actions of racist thugs when its front pages have repeatedly stoked the fire. The BBC aren't immune to criticism either, given Question Time's recurrent platforming of Nigel Farage. Cadwalladr herself may not be to blame, and neither may her employers - but the mainstream media as a whole need to take a long, hard look in the mirror.