Online politics heated once again on February 1, when a message by a conservative commentator, Candace Owens, sparked a heat of debate and worry on several social media sites. The shared post with the mass audience and immediately increased virality attracted the attention not only to its rhetoric but also to the speed of its spread. In several hours, it had been viewed over 1.4 million times, and tens of thousands of likes, reposts, and bookmarks were obtained.
The incident represents an increase of a trend in the digital discourse whereby angry speech travels more quickly than thoughtful consideration. Images of the post were spread all over, and the debate went outside the main audience of Owens and was discussed in a mainstream way. The post was marked as dangerous by critics, journalists, and civil rights advocates and promoted as provocative speech by supporters. The figures in themselves indicated how far it was going, but the response said more about the contemporary media environment.
