You may or may not have heard of Nick Bostrom, but he recently issued an sort-of-apology for something he wrote twenty years ago. His sort-of-apology did not receive the applause he might have expected, but instead elicited a number of sharp responses asking what purpose he thought his sort-of-apology served.

On the other hand, you may well have heard of Harry Styles and The Maroon 5, one of whom apologised recently and one of whom didn’t.

Using these and other examples Owen Kelly inquiries into the nature of apology in an age of instant opinion and social media. How can we tell a genuine apology from hollow PR, and why and when do we feel the need to insist on apologies, or to apologise ourselves?