The anonymity of the Internet has made it easy for users to post whatever they want, and not face any repercussions. Anonymity gives a new-found freedom to users, and the users that use this freedom to post offensive things or try to start arguments are known as “Internet Trolls.”
In my experience, there is a complete spectrum of Trolling. On one side are harmless trolls whose trolling is clever, in good taste, and not really offensive. On the opposite side are offensive, bigoted trolls who post only to hurt people. I’ll talk about both of these type of trolls.
The best example of the harmless troll I can think of is a user known as “Ken M.” Ken M comments on posts as a character who seems like the most oblivious person on the face of the earth, basically baiting other users to respond to his ridiculous comments. From the outside, and knowing that Ken M is a troll, the comments are hilarious and they don’t hurt anyone. Ken M even has a sub-reddit dedicated to his clever acts of trolling. (https://www.reddit.com/r/KenM/)
On the other, darker side of trolling are the hurtful, bigoted trolls whose only purpose is to spread hate and harass others. I was first introduced to these types of trolls when I was in high school, when the website Formspring became popular among teenagers. Formspring is a website that allows people to anonymously “ask questions” to users. However, what the website really allowed was for people to post hateful comments directly to people, and to do it anonymously. Formspring became the perfect medium through which to cyber-bully people. I didn’t personally have a Formspring account, but I saw many of my classmates’ pages. Even likable people’s pages were filled with hateful comments, usually girls being called “whores” and “sluts.”
This spectrum also has examples in-between these two extremes. What about the protestors who troll the Westboro Baptist Church? These trolls are technically harassing, but their main purpose is to silence the organization that was originally spreading hate. Trolling isn’t always a black and white subject, and it is sometimes difficult to see which examples are ethical and should be allowed, and which ones are not.
Freedom of Speech is important, but technology companies have a responsibility to suppress online harassment. This is why you can “report” a users on Youtube or COD if you find something they say or do to be offensive. Yikyak, the “anonymous Twitter,” tries to prevent cyber-bullying by not allowing the app to be used within a certain distance from a school. That way, the people who are most like bully through anonymous mediums and be affected by harassment the most (i.e. teens and pre-teens) do not have the means to do it through Yikyak. I also thinks technology companies have a responsibility not to create things that foster and encourage harassment. A website like Formspring should not have even been created, even if its intentions were good.
Trolling definitely is a problem on the internet. Just look at Youtube comments for any video (especially a political video), or spend 20 minutes in a Call of Duty game lobby, and you’ll see how harassment and online anonymity go hand-in-hand. Personally, my approach for handling trolls is to ignore them. Sometimes, if I have a clever response I’ll fire back, but those occasions are rare. It’s not easy for everyone to ignore trolls and harassment, though. The negative side of trolling is a problem, and technology companies and internet users should be working diligently to solve it and make the internet a place where everyone can feel safe and free of unnecessary harassment.
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