It began, as so many of the best stories do, with a man doing a wee somewhere he shouldn’t.
The ‘somewhere he shouldn’t’, in this case was the door of SNP MP John Nicolson’s constituency office.
A photo of the incident, which is said to have happened several years ago, shows a man with his back to the camera in the standard man-doing-some-public-disorder pose.
The photo resurfaced this week after John Nicolson tweeted to tell his 63,000 followers that the culprit had been unmasked at last.
The Ochil and South Perthshire MP declared that his Twitter sleuths had solved the mystery. He then named (and tagged) the alleged culprit and proudly boasted that the damning evidence was on its way to the police.
Shortly after this bold – some might say foolish – statement, it seems the certainty John Nicolson felt when publicly naming and shaming Douglas McNab had dwindled away.
The SNP MP deleted his post and acted as though the whole thing hadn’t happened.
Now, the target of Mr Nicolson’s accusation has spoken out. He says he is innocent and he will be seeking legal advice.
What a mess.
John Nicolson tweet had ‘significant’ impact
It goes without saying that if you are a public figure and you are going to accuse a member of the public of peeing on your door, you had better be pretty damn sure you’ve got the right guy.
There might not be a specific section on this in the MP’s guidebook. But surely it’s a matter of common sense?
But then again, social media – and Twitter, in particular – is a place where common sense goes to die.
Twitter is full of self-righteous posturing. Which is perhaps why Mr Nicolson felt it was the best place to try out his Hercule Poirot bit.
Social media offers users an intoxicating mix of validation and instant gratification.
But, as we have seen in this instance, it isn’t without its casualties.
Mr McNab says that he has been “stood down’’ from his job while this matter is sorted out.
I've spoken to Douglas McNab, the man accused of urinating on John Nicolson's office door.
He claims he is innocent. @thecourieruk https://t.co/v4aOz7QKJZ
— Rachel Amery (@RachelAmery) April 20, 2023
He told the Courier that the impact on him had been ‘’significant’’.
“It is a shock to me and it is spiralling’’ he said.
Think before you tweet – a lesson for all of us
Mr McNab isn’t the first person to become the target of online mob justice. And he definitely won’t be the last.
In an ideal world, we would all be lovely towards each other on social media.
We would only say nice things. And we would finish every interaction with a smattering of kisses.
We would replace full stops with heart emojis. Gifs would be used liberally to emphasise the good intentions of our messages.
On reflection, that actually sounds quite annoying. So for the time being lets’ just agree that accounts with a large following should be mindful of the potential ramifications of their online actions.
I say that not from a place of piety, but from my own inglorious social media missteps.
I don’t use Twitter much these days but I used to be an enthusiast.
Off the top of my head, I can think of at least five occasions where I now realise I was in the wrong but was, at the time, certain – and extremely vocal – about the fact that I was right.
There are probably more occasions when the lure of online clout clouded my judgement and I was too harsh towards other people, or too sure of the invulnerability of my own opinions.
You live and you learn and hopefully John Nicolson will too.
And if anybody ever pees on my door you better believe I’ll be sending away for DNA testing before I hit tweet.
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