Went too far?
After the Guns N’ Roses tour was ‘cancelled’ by a malicious hacker on Axl Rose’s Twitter account this week, it was only a matter of time before another micro-blogging saga came to the fore in silly season. Round two involves everyone’s number one teenage singing sensation, Justin Bieber – the boy that’s so popular, his fans think he’s been banned from Twitter trending.
So, here’s what happened …
A Michigan teenager, Kevin Kristopik, got hold of Justin Bieber’s personal mobile phone number from “a friend” and sent the teenage star a text message. OK, fine. Perhaps Justin should be a little more careful who he gives his phone number to as his friends obviously can’t be trusted.
So what do you think happened next? Justin changed his number? He texted back and said, ‘hey, thanks for being a fan?’
No, Bieber, who was reported to be “stunned” by this meddling in his private life decided to do something really quite incredible – he wrote this message to his 4.5 million Twitter followers … “Everyone call me on (insert Kristopik’s number) … or text.”
Although the ‘joke’ message only stayed online for a few minutes, the power of retweeting meant the damage was already done, and within seconds Kristopik began receiving phone calls and text messages from Bieber fans keen to find out if it was his real number.
Kristopik went on to receive over 30,000 text messages and calls which resulted in him having to change his phone number and close his Twitter account.
Speaking to MSNBC last night, Kristopik explained: “Most of them (texts) were like, ‘Oh my God, Justin, is that really you?’ and others were like accusing me of hacking Justin Bieber’sTwitter and posting my own number, which is ridiculous.”
Despite Bieber’s reckless tweet causing this outrage, Kristopik was the one to apologise for his actions, saying, “I’m sorry for meddling into your life”
But adding, “I also think he [Bieber] took it a little too far overboard by literally giving my number to 4.5 million people.”
OK, Kristopik probably shouldn’t have texted Bieber, but hey, it was hardly a crime – he was given the number and he ran with it. I would have done exactly the same if I was given Noel Gallagher’s phone number when I was 16.
Surely only two apologies are necessary in this case.
The “friend” of Bieber who gave the number to Kristopik should probably put his hands up and say sorry. But the person who has the most to apologise for is Justin Bieber himself.
By posting this number on his Twitter account he abused his position of power and encouraged the persecution of one young (and granted, naïve) teenage boy. OK, he didn’t do it for long, but he did it, and that is a serious lapse of judgement on the part of the pop star and something he should apologise to Kristopik for, not the other way around.
I suppose it’s easy to forget Bieber himself is only 16 – but if he’s going to be a role model to millions of kids around the world, he needs to start thinking before he acts.
