The War on Trolls

You spent hours writing a new post for your blog, editing a YouTube video or retouching a photo for your Deviant Art page before posting it on the web for all to see and enjoy. And then it happens. Someone leaves you a nasty anonymous comment and suddenly every nice thing said about your work fades away and you’re left feeling hurt and confused. First, welcome to the Internet. Second, Congratulations! You’ve survived your first troll!

Now you’re probably thinking, “Wait a second! what’s a troll and why are they pestering lil ol’ me? I just wanted to post a cute picture of me and my new puppy and now my inbox is blowing up with messages about how ugly and fat I am and that my puppy should be euthanized? What does it all mean!?” Encyclopedia dramatica defines a troll as, “any person who purposely causes controversy in a web community (by posting offensive and crude comments) and disrupts sh*t for his own amusement” Trolls have been getting a lot of media attention lately as their victims are speaking out and fighting back with legal action!

Last month, 11 year old video blogger “Jessi Slaughter” caught the attention of the Internet’s most notorious group of trolls, housed on the 4chan sub board known as /b/. After posting a video of herself cursing and threatening some of her online tormentors along with photos of herself partially clothed, /b/ decided to make Jessi their new target.  The all out assault on the young girl included posting her telephone number and home address online which resulted in endless prank calls at all hours of the night, unsolicited pizza deliveries and even sending prostitutes to her home via craigslist. Jessie only made the situation worse by getting her parents involved and posting a bizarre video rant featuring her father in which she proclaims that the trolls are ruining her life and her father promises to hunt down the perpetrators and that “consequences will never be the same”.

The video threat only backfired and turned into a full on meme that has since spawned remix videos, animated photos (known as “gifs”) and photo montages and comics. The Jessi Slaughter meme grew so rapidly that the Today Show even covered the story, interviewing Jessi and her family for a story on Internet bullying. In a strange twist of fate, the child psychologist who was interviewed for the story then became a /b/ target after offering advice on how to combat trolls. When she was invited back to the Today Show for a follow up story she declined the invitation in an effort to avoid further provoking the trolls! New York entertainment blog, Gawker and one of their staff members also came under attack after covering the story and speaking out against 4chan and /b/’s “smear campaign” The police have since gotten involved and have begun an investigation in an effort to uncover the parties behind the online attacks, along with allegations against her parents of child abuse.

Last year, model Liskula Cohen set a precedent in the war on trolls when she sued Google after an anonymous blogger called her a “skank” and “old hag”. Cohen won her case, which resulted in Google revealing the blogger’s identity. The blogger has since filed a 15 million dollar suit of her own against Google for revealing her identity, claiming that they violated her right to privacy. Now a Columbia grad, Carla Franklin, is following suit, quite literally, and attempting to sue an anonymous YouTube commenter after leaving what she claims are defamatory comments on one of her videos.

So what does this all mean? Can you really punish anonymous online commenters for saying rude things or voicing their opinions online? While I believe the trolls that harassed Jessi Slaughter should be caught and punished, I’m hesitant to say that we should patrol all forms of online commenting. In Jessi’s case the harassment moved offline and into real life, which I believe is completely wrong and completely warrants legal action. But in the Cohen and Franklin case I’m sympathetic, but not convinced legal action is necessary or rational. The fact is, trolls are something that EVERYONE deals with on the Internet. You don’t have to be famous or even well liked online to experience anonymous online torments. And while that doesn’t make it fair, expressing one’s opinion isn’t illegal. No matter how offensive or rude that opinion might be. I believe tech blogger Aaron Sumner put it best when he said, “The best thing about the Internet is it gives everyone a voice. The worst thing about the Internet is it gives everyone a voice.”

Being a video blogger and online personality myself, I’ve dealt with all types of online tormenting. I’ve cried many tears over hurtful racist comments on my videos and nasty emails that show up in my inbox. But, over time I’ve realized that the best way to combat the trolls is to just block and ignore. I’ve since set up email filters to move any racist language directly into my trash folder and in the past I would get into arguments with trolls but now I block them without a second thought. When it comes to trolls, I’ve found that not giving them attention is best revenge. Today, there are even browser plug ins that can hide website comments if you aren’t interested in or can’t handle online feedback of any kind. Unfortunately, negative attention is just part of the Internet beast.  So what do you think? What’s the best way to handle online trolls or criticism? And at what point do online comments cross the threshold of free speech and enter into harassment?