Lady Gaga calls for crackdown on Internet abuse
Pop superstar Lady Gaga has called on fans and social media bosses to crack down on Internet abuse, just days after she started a nasty online feud with a gossip blogger.
The singer hit headlines last week (ends18Aug13) when she began a war of words with Perez Hilton after he criticized her new music on his website, branding him "sick" and accusing him of "stalking" her.
Hilton subsequently claimed the Twitter.com rant prompted Gaga's
legions of fans to send him a barrage of abusive messages and death
threats through the website.
However, Gaga has now issued a statement urging her fans not to
spread hatred online.
In a message posted on the website of her Born This Way Foundation,
Gaga writes, "(I am) passionate about tolerance, acceptance, and
kindness, and I've made it a point early in my career to make it
known that this is what I stand for as an artist.
"While it may be difficult at times to hear the things that people
say and write about me... Sending threats of any kind, using
hateful or abusive language, and the provoking of others on the
internet is not supported by me or anything that I stand for. What
I've seen transpiring is wrong and upsetting to me...
"I ask you to take a pledge with me to continue the change toward
positivity, and to recognize that this behavior is wrong... The
anonymous nature of social media has made it easy for many to vent
their anger by bullying others with no recourse or accountability.
But this is not a healthy way to handle your emotions."
Gaga also calls for an overhaul of social networking websites to
help stamp out abuse, adding, "I also ask that Twitter and other
social media platforms support this effort to monitor and control
abusive and threatening language, as I don't know that I am
powerful enough to stop it myself. Please represent me and our
community with the values we cherish and live by."