Someone is Wrong on the Internet

What does it mean to be “held accountable” for your opinions?

(Getty/Arc)

If you spend any time on Twitter, you might have noticed a new category of post in recent weeks.

Call it the Clubhouse Tattle:

The substance of these posts is always the same, always with an undercurrent of teeth-gnashing frustration: look at these people, saying things, without interruption or correction or any way to make them stop.

Eventually, inevitably, the complaining party will say the A-word.

Ah, yes: Accountability!

It’s everyone’s new favorite word, applicable not just to Clubhouse but any venue in which people are being allowed to speak freely. Amid the ongoing debate over what to do about misinformation, conspiracy theories, and the perils of the online public square, “accountability” has taken on an air of magic.