Today Show 31 July

Clip courtesy of the Nine Network Australia

Australian cricketer Phil Hughes got in a little bit of trouble from skipper Ricky Ponting for twittering his dropping, instead of it being announced via the usual, more formal channels.

Then there was the case were singers Brian McFadden and Delta Goodrem were stalked via Twitter, which caused them concern – why wouldn’t it? Karl also mentioned that he has been the victim of a rogue Twitter account, with somebody starting one up in his name, which lead to a lot of confusion amongst his friends and family.

Phil Hughes aside, how can you fix things when things go bad on a social networking sites?

Luckily there are a number of avenues for you to go through. First of all, if it is serious enough you can contact the Federal Police’s cybercrime division, who will act upon your complaint. Like any cybercrime, people tend to leave virtual fingerprints, which is a trail the police can follow to a degree.

You can also remove a post from Twitter. Of course, it might be too late because a tonne of people may have read it, but you can lessen the damage. If somebody is cyberstalking you, or you believe they are using your name in vain, you can contact Twitter, and if they think that you are indeed a victim, they will delete the account. It doesn’t stop them from trying to contact you again, of course, but at least they cannot carry on making your life a nuisance.

Finally, when all else fails – and you could see this as a sign of capitulation – you could stop Tweeting for a while. Not the ideal situation, but it could make the pain in the butt go away. See it here