ANT KATZ

Conventional wisdom suggests that trolls and cyber-bullies are best ignored which SAJR Online tries to do. Once deemed to be harassing fellow-users who complain in terms of our rule 14, above, we also have the duty to investigate, ask ourselves what a “reasonable man” would feel (a concept so prevalent in SA’s legal system), and act accordingly for the greater body of users of this website.

Regular user David B TAKES ON THE EDITOR in defence of fellow regular Choni D’s “right within this site to (troll) at every opportunity – as is our right to disagree with him. I disagree with him vehemently”, writes David.

RIGHT: The advice to ignore rather than engage with a troll is sometimes phrased as “Please do not feed the trolls.”

The online editor has, in turn, referred David to this website’s COMMENT GUIDELINES and explained that SAJR Online not only has the right, but indeed in certain circumstances the obligation, to act against “trolls” and “cyber-bullies” – READ THE COMMENT AND RESPONSE HERE.

To assist users to better understand the terms troll and cyber-bully, which are, of course, subjective, SAJR Online is publishing a selection of excerpts from information in the public domain that informs our own understanding of these terms.

Not enough law

ANTI-TROLL.ORG is the official website of The Anti-troll Alliance (TAA), an organisation actively campaigning to make “trolling” a recognised criminal offence. They define their raison d’être as follows: “Freedom of speech does NOT mean freedom to abuse people. People who ‘troll’ online are in effect guilty of cyber-bullying, and we believe should face the same punishment as the crime of cyber-stalking. This is why we are campaigning to have trolling or cyber-bullying re-classified, so that it can carry the same punishment as cyber-stalking. We hope to have trolling included in the current US Federal Anti-Cyber-Stalking law, and have that law updated to suit as such.”

WHAT IS AN ONLINE TROLL? 

Multiple definitions and explanations exist, here follows a few that are like-minded to SAJR Online’s thinking:

• A ‘troll’ is a person who posts a deliberately provocative or abusive message with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument;
• People who find pleasure in harassing others online;
• Internet trolling is seemingly innocent enough, but disruptive nonetheless;
• Platforms like ‘Yahoo! Gamerooms’ blacklist trolls for up to five years;
• A troll, in Internet slang, is someone who deliberately upsets others by starting arguments or posting unnecessarily inflammatory messages;
• It’s become so bad that YouTube had to develop a way for users to moderate their video comments section;
• Popular Science shut down its comments section entirely;
• NETFORBEGINNERS defines trolling as the anti-social act of causing of interpersonal conflict and shock-value controversy online;
• The term “troll” emanates from those wicked troll creatures of children’s stories;
• Trolling is purposely sowing hatred, bigotry, racism, misogyny, or just simple bickering;
• Trolls are emotionally immature and thrive in any environment where they are allowed to make public comments;
• WIKIPEDIA defines a troll as “a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion;
• The word troll (and its associated verb trolling) is associated with online harassment;
• Trolling, like any pejorative term, can be used as an ad hominem attack;

LEFT: How to identify an Internet troll – see complete infogram below story

• Trolling is a negative connotation an very often off-point to the discussion;
• Trolls disrupt forums and threads, whether they intend to or not, the results are the same;
• Popular recognition of the existence of non-deliberate, “accidental trolls”, has been documented widely;
• Ten per cent of trolls admit it is their favourite activity;
• Trolling enjoyment is very strongly associated with a sadistic personality;
• The majority of trolls devote over an hour a day to commenting on the web;
• THEGUARDIAN.com published a study which attempted to shed light on the behaviour of Internet trolls which found that “Internet trolls are also real-life trolls” and exhibited similar behaviour off-line; and
• The study found trolls shared a personality trait which includes narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism;

WHAT IS A CYBER-BULLY? 

A cyber-bully is someone who purposely wants to “get off” on other people’s pain or distress;

• INTERNETMARKETINGNINJAS.com calls “the Internet troll an opportunist who has only begun to troll because the situation was too perfect not to and that they are “mostly annoying…”
• Cyber-stalkers meet or target their victims by using search engines, online forums and social media in exactly the same way as trolls and cyber-bullies do.
• Cyber-bullies need to feed their obsession. Their acts tend to become more intense as they repeatedly send the same message their targets;
• Cyber-bullies post derogatory statements about their targets designed to get a reaction or response from their victims;

The Anti-troll Alliance (TAA) believes that trolling and cyber-bullying are similar to cyber-stalking and seek to have the current US Federal Anti-Cyber-Stalking law expanded to include these activities. “While cyber-stalkers concentrate on only one target, the troll can have up to 100 targets (the number of victims in the forum he posts) per day, and can move from group to group creating more and more victims,” says TAA.

Mentality: Troll/cyber-bully vs cyber-stalker

Cyber-stalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk or harass an individual, a group of individuals, organisation or ideal. The definition of “harassment” must meet the criterion that a reasonable person, in possession of the same information, would regard it as sufficient to cause another reasonable person distress.

As can be seen from the above, many of these methods of abuse or harassment by cyber-stalkers mirror the key factors of trolls and cyber-bullies, according to the TAA. 

When prosecuted in the US, a high percentage of cyber-stalkers unsuccessfully attempt to justify their behaviour based on their use of public forums, as opposed to direct contact. The law does not distinguish between the two.

A number of key factors have been defined in the US law on cyber-stalking: 

FALSE ACCUSATIONS: Many cyber-stalkers try to damage the reputation of their victim and turn other people against them – this is the exact same methods that trolls employ to abuse their victims. 

ENCOURAGING OTHERS TO HARASS THE VICTIM: Cyber-stalkers try to involve third parties in the harassment. They may claim the victim (or point of view) and encourage others to join the pursuit. Yet another common tactic that the average troll employs.

FALSE VICTIMISATION: Cyber-stalkers claim to be the victim of harassment. This phenomenon has been well documented and is also the hallmark of the average troll

ARRANGING TO MEET: Cyber-stalkers, being those who face criminal charges in the US, often try to set up direct contact or meetings with like-minded posters. One particular troll on SAJR Online frequently does this.

HOW TO DEAL WITH A ‘TROLL’?

The commonly-held best ways to deal with trolls are the following:

• Ignore postings that you suspect may be from trolls;
• Don’t invest any of your self emotionally until you have verified beyond all doubt that the person you are dealing with is genuine
• Put suspected trolls on a block or banned list.
• In the US an assortment of agencies and organisations work to improve online safety and advise people on dealing with online harassment;
• Don’t rely on Internet service providers (ESP) for help, though. In the US, most have terms of service that prohibit abusive behaviour, but don’t do much to put an end to trolling. Ed Opperman, president of Opperman Investigations, says, “…the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (“CDA”) Section 230(c)(1) shields providers of interactive computer services from liability for the actions of the individuals using those services. Since they have no liability for the actions of their members they make very little effort to identify them or even discourage the cyber harassment of other members.”

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KEEP OPINIONS LEGAL & THEY’LL BE HEARD

THE ARGY-BARGY OVER FREE SPEECH

ABOVE: A humerous look at how to identify an internet troll