Waseem Saddique Marketing covers the
topic of trolling amid mounting concerns over the impact it has on individuals
and businesses
‘Trolling’
has been branded as online bullying, with psychology experts defining those who
‘troll’ as being dark, menacing and devious in nature, solely intent on
disrupting lives, business operations and generally causing misery, often with
an end goal in mind.
Trolling is
commonly associated with social media and is a wide spread problem that has
infiltrated schools, the work place and society in general.
The problem
of trolling has become so vast that it has now become a criminal offence.
Social networking site Twitter has become infamous for trolling, with millions
of Twitter users berated by trolls on a daily basis. Troll victims include
celebrities, businesses and the general public.
What does trolling involve?
Waseem
Saddique comments: “Trolling is vile and involves individuals posting obscene
comments about individuals, businesses and horrific events. Trolling can only
be described as morbid and the fact of the matter is it can lead individuals to
self-harm or worse still, commit suicide.”
Trolling
involves posting defamatory or obscene comments with the intention of causing
maximum hurt and upset. This can be done via various platforms including:
newspaper columns, online forums and social networking sites, to name but a
few.
What impact has trolling had?
Trolling has
become a global phenomenon and whilst no official figures have been released
regarding the number of suicides that have occurred as a result of trolling, a
simple search engine investigation on Google typing in ‘trolling suicides’
brings up 13,900,000 results.
In its most
severe form, trolling is deemed a criminal offence and in one of the first most
high profile cases, which emerged in the state of Missouri in the USA in 2006,
13-year-old Megan Meier killed herself after being subjected to intense online
bullying.
The perpetrator turned out to be next door
neighbour, Lori Drew, a middle-aged woman who had set up a ‘MySpace’ profile in
order to win – then later betray – Megan’s trust. Whilst Drew was acquitted
amid concerns that a conviction would criminalise false online identities, it
remains one of the first ‘trolling’ cases to go to trial.
One of the
most high profile UK cases involved deceased celebrity, Jade Goody, whose
family set up a memory page on Facebook in respect of her passing. The page was ‘trolled’ by Colm
Coss, who later received an 18 week prison sentence for posting obscene
comments about the Big Brother star and other dead celebrities on the memory
page.
How can the trolls be stopped?
Twitter has
already taken steps to ‘tackle the troll’, by introducing a ‘report abuse’
button, but is this enough?
Waseem Saddique comments: “Stopping the trolls is difficult as the issue of ‘free speech’ is compromised. However, across social networking sites in particular
where evidence of ‘extreme’ trolling is identified, accounts are being
suspended.”
Critics argue
though that ‘trollers’ will simply set up new profiles in order to continue
their tirade of abuse.
In a
statement from Dr Bernie Hogan, research fellow at the Oxford Institute of the
Internet, he said: “The best way to stop trolling is to report them and ignore
the comments. Simple psychology suggests that if they are not provoking a
response they will simply get bored and move on eventually getting phased out.
There is already evidence to suggest that internet users are turning on the
trolls.”
He added:
“Even the law has become involved and prison sentences will certainly act as a
deterrent. The idea that you can now get a jail sentence and a criminal record for posting a comment serves
as a warning. There’s no such thing as anonymous in a technological age. It’s
inevitable that persistent ‘trollers’ will be identified and face prosecution
in extreme cases.”
