Today many controversies arose on the social media platforms where there was a high profile celebrity who tweeted something that created trouble and controversy. The celebrity, who has been noted to have a way with words particularly when expressing himself on social issues posted a statement regarding a sensitive political issue at the time and within a few hours the post had received hundreds of thousands of likes, retweet and comments.

People of course were divided on X (formerly Twttier) with some hailing the celebrity as a hero for speaking out against the injustice while others accused the celebrities of being ignorant or rather ill informed. By this morning, hashtags in support of and against the celebrity hashtag was trending, with users posting memes, video, and complex threads based on the tweet.

I brought the conflict back to Instagram; fans and critics filled the latest posts with comments to the celebrity. Most seemed to be upset and some even vowed to stop following the star; others said that the artist has the right to voice their opinion. Other celebs and influencers chimed in, some disavowing the statement and thus contributing to more, others supporting it and thus continuing the furore.

News commentators and numerous other informative channels, and even vloggers uploading reaction videos to the tweet rolled into YouTube. Ott videos some of which are political recordings, would attract millions of views in just a few hours, while the comment sections turned into war zones. This caused content creators to rush to create content as they offered their opinions on the incident or what they thought could happen to the celebrity’s career.

Towards the evening the celebrity’s publicist published a statement that had the purpose of explaining the purpose of the tweet but this only fueled the debate. Every word that was said in the clarification was looked at on social media with some people I claiming the celebrity was trying to backtrack, while others felt that the clarification was needed in order to understand and properly evaluate the issue at hand.

A number of important issues were raised, chief of which are the capabilities of social media in organizing peoples’ voices and popularizing discussions, in addition to the risks for celebrities when it comes to touched upon topics on social media. It also showed how quickly information and opinions circulate across platforms, the story develops with the addition of new participants.

Other groups followed this trending topic and came up with articles thus creating posts in blog sites and other magazines that put emphasis to the actual tweet. This resulted in debates on what role of traditional media with social platforms existing, and how the viral moments impact public discourse.

And as the day drew to a close, there was no stopping users from arguing whether or not the celebrity should have made the statement and what that was even indicating. As always, the episode is was another generic lesson in celebrity social media influence and the impact on the general populace.