Also, I think more attention to this trend would perhaps get Twitter and similar businesses to put some thought into improving their platform. I would think that if people paid more attention to how normalized misogyny has become, companies that care about their public image would want to do something to address it.
-k
I'm not on twitter, so don't feel I can say much about the bullying that goes on there. But I wonder what you think they should do to address this, exactly? If they remove those 'bullying' posts, they'll be accused of interfering with "free speech" and the people prone to bullying will go to Reddit (I suppose they're already there), FB, snapchat, instagram, etc., - wherever they feel they can express their disapproval.
I think there are a lot of moderate people in the world; I think they're the majority. I also think they're the ones least likely to engage in conflict online, so the majority of what we see in the online world are the extremes of any viewpoint. It's easy to forget that those are not really representative of what most people think. I think its easy to see a problem as bigger than it is, if too much attention is paid to what is happening online. It also seems to me that what was big news/scandal/event in the online world this week is practically forgotten in a few months time.
I think at some point, companies, not media companies, but just regular companies, will have to take a stand about firing as a result of social media mob action. They should, perhaps, devise a 'standard' for which people can be fired - outright cruelty to animals, making death threats, online or not, getting arrested for racism, spousal abuse, sexual assault - but not for being mobbed on Twitter or any other platform for an expressed opinion. I think more moderate people should find a way to speak up if they see mobbing on social media - but I don't have much hope for that, since yeah - who likes to deal with all that conflict? Not many.
There is a lot about social media that has to change, but I do think the priority has to be the spread of misinformation online. It's not that this issue of online bullying/cancel culture isn't important, but in my view it's less of a priority than misinformation that can cause rather more societal harm than whether JK Rowling (or anyone else) loses book sales.
Btw, as a result of this thread and in a roundabout way her attackers, I'll be looking to read her new series. Kind of an unintended consequence of this, eh?