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A UK professor’s social media post received negative reactions after being misinterpreted by some netizens.
In October, Carrie Paechter [KAR-ee PEECH-ter] of Nottingham Trent University posted a tweet encouraging students to register both their home and university addresses for this year’s UK general elections. Some people saw her tweet as a way to advocate election fraud by telling students to vote twice.
Because of the misunderstanding, Paechter received furious replies and was reported to the police and the Electoral Commission. Someone also wrote to her university requesting her to be penalized.
The professor was surprised by the angry reactions. She said that she already blocked more than 500 people on Twitter because of the threats she received. She defended herself, saying that she was just trying to remind students to vote. The intention of the tweet was to make sure that students were registered and informed that they could vote whether they were in their hometown or their school dorm.
Paechter claimed that she has always been careful about voicing her take on issues on social media. Despite this, she posted the tweet because she believes that keeping students informed about the elections is one of the universities’ responsibilities.
Some students were concerned about the date of last year’s elections because it fell around the universities’ end of term. During this time, most students would be traveling back home for the holiday season.
For this reason, like Paechter, educators across the country have all been exerting efforts to remind students to register both their permanent and current addresses. Some even used their lecture time to educate students about the elections and registrations.