Outed Internet Troll Dead

[hc4361]

I was shocked to read the orginal report of this woman trolling the McCanns and am doubly shocked by this news report

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2781377/BREAKING-NEWS-Internet-troll-targeted-McCanns-dead-hotel-room-days-fleeing-home.html

I cannot begin to understand what motivates some seemingly 'decent' people to become internet trolls but it seems the shame is too much to bear in this case.

[Mamyalynne]

I think the Internet affords people a strange sense of security as they hide beyond anonymous user names - anyone is entitled to an opinion and as long as not threatening to express it, but when you go public beware the result.


A tragic ens to a sad scenario.

[Cloverjo]

I am shocked that the woman has apparently killed herself. I particularly feel for her son.
What she said about the McCanns was dreadful (I've only seen what Sky reported, I didn't see it on Twitter myself). I'm also saddened by previous threads on AB about the McCanns, who are still going through a terrible ordeal which might never end.

[mikey4444]

I am sorry that this woman has appeared to have taken her own life but she can hardly have expected much in the way of sympathy can she ?

[Hypognosis]

How often do Catholics, in general, let alone convent-educated ones commit suicide?

I gather that there are bad consequences for them, afterlife-wise? (I'm atheist, just trying to get my facts straight).


Going to a hotel to carry out the deed fits the picture though. Fastidious about her house, didn't want to make any mess.

Also, I've seen one drama where the character does everything they can to express hateful ideas, so as to make those closest to them turn their backs on them. All part of the long game of doing themselves in without hurting those they leave behind.

What if trolls are all on this same self-destruct kick?

Personally, I think it's purely down to the ease of communication. It's something they can 'win' at, being hateful and walking away with no traceability.

Incidentally, the police have powers to force details from the ISP. The press do not. Somebody blabbed.

[andy-hughes]

Hypognosis - "Also, I've seen one drama where the character does everything they can to express hateful ideas, so as to make those closest to them turn their backs on them. All part of the long game of doing themselves in without hurting those they leave behind.

I think you are according trolls a level of intellect and forethought which, by definition, they do no possess.

"Personally, I think it's purely down to the ease of communication. It's something they can 'win' at, being hateful and walking away with no traceability."

I entirely agree.

As I have opined before, it is probably a generation thing, but I remain blissfully untouched by social media because I grew up without it, and see absolutely no need to indulge in it - if I had the time, which I don't.

So it is a mystery to me why anyone is upset by the ramblings of a stranger in print - why not simply delete the post, or better still, absent yourself from this insidious meddling by not dealing with social media?

It's not essential - honestly!

[mushroom25]

//It's not essential - honestly! //

maybe not yet, but it's getting there. for instance it's only possible to get up to date train running info via twitter.

[ludwig]

// So it is a mystery to me why anyone is upset by the ramblings of a stranger in print - //

That's a bit like saying, kids - just ignore bullies, sticks and stones etc. Easier said than done.

//
I think the Internet affords people a strange sense of security as they hide beyond anonymous user names - anyone is entitled to an opinion and as long as not threatening to express it, but when you go public beware the result.
//

I agree Mamyalynne. The rule of thumb with the internet is to never say anything on it that you wouldn't be happy for everyone to know what you said, and it was you that said it, and I mean you the real person, not you the username/avatar.

[andy-hughes]

ludwig - "// So it is a mystery to me why anyone is upset by the ramblings of a stranger in print - //

That's a bit like saying, kids - just ignore bullies, sticks and stones etc. Easier said than done."

No it's not.

Face-to-face bullying is an entirely different concept, and far harder to address.

Cyber-bullying has a couple of extremely simply solutions -

turn your head forty-five degrees to the left or right, and the bullying is instantly removed

or better still, don't use social media in the first place - it is absolutely not essential - merely that a large number of people behave as though it is.

Desireable is not the same as essential.

[ludwig]

// Cyber-bullying has a couple of extremely simply solutions -
turn your head forty-five degrees to the left or right, and the bullying is instantly removed //

If only the various children that have committed suicide because of cyber-bullying had known this, tragedies could have been avoided.

[hc4361]

andy-hughes, surely AnswerBank is a form of social media?

I haven't seen the comments this woman posted on Twitter but I have read a few posts from people claiming that her tweets did not amount to trolling and a lot of tweets reported in the papers were not hers. She did not threaten the McCann's or their children, did not wish vile things on them but she did firmly believe the McCann's know more than they are admitting to.

Maybe she should have kept her thoughts to herself but is anyone allowed to publicly state their opinion about a tragedy or anything else?

I still think the Sky reporter was wrong to out her before she was charged with anything.

[Hypognosis]

@andy-hughes

"I think you are according trolls a level of intellect and forethought which, by definition, they do no possess. "

We're all fed on a diet of crime stories, in films and television; aren't we all amateur sleuths, at least some of the time.

Given 60 million people exposed to the story details, isn't it inevitable that a few hundred will remain of the opinion that they did it, even though, to other parents, this is completely improbable.

Given our laws on slander and libel, it seems we are not, as she previously thought, a country in which one is 'entitled _to express_ an opinion'. They won against a national newspaper, so she must have thought she didn't have a chance, now that they'd tracked down her address.

Sorry, like you said, thought processes are beyond the grasp of trolls.

[anotheoldgit]

How does anyone know that she committed suicide and even if she did, was it because she was being investigated over the troll allegations?

One also has to ask, why are these site such as Twitter, Facebook and chat forums, not scrutinised for such things by their providers.

AnswerBank seems to control it's site quite well, why not others?

[ludwig]

// AnswerBank seems to control it's site quite well, why not others? //

Ab's got a tiny number of users compared to facebook and twitter.

[Hypognosis]

@AOG

For every AB thread I read or participate in, at least another dozen go flying by on the latest post ticker and I haven't the time to even glance at the OP let alone read everything. I pity the mod's their task.

FB and twitter have hundreds of millions of users each: you'd need computer code to home in on offensive posts and those could be easily defeated by 'creative misspelling' of typical keywords/phrases.

[ladybirder]

jno I don't see how you can say she was hounded to her death. As far as I can tell she was visited once by the reporter from Sky when he confronted her and then later she invited him into her home for an interview. She thought she was anonymous and like other internet bullies never expected to be outed. When she was, she realised she had lost her standing in the community in which she lived and couldn't face her friends and family. There are far more bullied who have taken their lives through cyber bullying that the bullies. You could say she did the decent thing in the end but I think it was a major over reaction. I think she could have overcome this if she had made heartfelt apologies to the McCanns and promised to never do it again. Perhaps a donation to the Find Madeleine fund would't have gone amiss either.

[andy-hughes]

ludwig - "// Cyber-bullying has a couple of extremely simply solutions -
turn your head forty-five degrees to the left or right, and the bullying is instantly removed //

If only the various children that have committed suicide because of cyber-bullying had known this, tragedies could have been avoided."

I realise my response may appear trite in print, I assure you it is not meant to.

As I advised, myself, and my children are beyond the 'cyber-bullying platforms, but I am sure all my grandchildren will be monitored carefully by their parents, and I shall be instilling into them the mindless triviality that is this form of mass communication with strangers.

[Ellipsis]

"Put me behind the wheel and I'm a different person" is often said in humour. The same personality change seems to apply to a computer.

i.e. people can behave very differently when cocooned in a bubble (car or internet) than they would in a normal, everyday social situation.

That's not to excuse it ...

[andy-hughes]

hc4361 - "andy-hughes, surely AnswerBank is a form of social media?"

Indeed it is, but it predates Facebook and Twitter by a number of years.

I am on here because I was employed as a writer when the site started in 2000, and I have stayed here ever since.

I think the site differs from Twitter and facebook in that its raison d'etre is the request and supply of information, which has expanded into debate forum.

As advises, its managebale size means 'trolling' is not tollerated, and therefore it remains a site to ask and answer questions, and to debate and interact with like-minded (or not so like-minded) souls.

For it is a world away from the endless pointlessness of Twitter et al.

[kvalidir]

Yes I understand that andy- I've had a nasty time online myself and it's had zero effect on me other than to amuse me by thinking how much time the said trolls are spending attempting to upset me, BUT not everyone is like that. dome people experience online bullying in exactly the same way they do face to face bullying and it's not helpful of those of us who don't to assume it's more trivial than it is to these people.

[BlackadderV]

I think that Ellipsis has hit the nail on the head. Some people say things behind the relative anonymity of a screen which they would not dare to say face to face.