LUKE MARSDEN: My death threats for a Britney Spears compliment

It has been a year since her death and what a year it has been. I once again reminded people of the need to be kind on social media.

My week, however, ended with death threats before Wednesday lunchtime.

The much talked about, controversial documentary on Britney Spears’s conservatorship aired in the UK this week. The doc showed Britney in her heyday and I tweeted about how hot she looked back then (let’s be honest: she did!)

I went to sleep Tuesday evening and woke up to hundreds of tweets from furious Britney fans demanding I “be cancelled” and hurling abuse too awful to type in this column. Many demanded I re-watch the doc to “get the point of it.” If any of these pop princess fans had bothered to read my subsequent tweet, they will know I did watch the entire 90-minute saga.

But that doesn’t matter does it? Cancel culture is prevalent and here to stay, some of these American Britney fans demanded I “die for my tweet”. Now, even if Covid wasn’t an issue I highly doubt any of them will be flying across the Atlantic with the Circus album on loop ready to stab me to death with stilettos.

I’m fortunate enough to have a very thick skin thanks to previous events in my life, but people like Caroline Flack could have taken these sorts of tweets seriously and made a fatal decision because of them.

I’ve said before and I’ve repeated this week: social media is now the Wild West and everyone is looking for a shoot-out. I’ve reminded these Britney fans attacking me to be kind and oops, I think I just did it again. Think before you tweet!

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