Contributed by Yasmin Ibrahim, Editor, IJEP
Trolling has become an international phenomenon. Generally speaking, trolling is the victimization of internet users, closely associated with cyber-bullying or other forms of online abuse. Behaviors associated with trolling have caused world-wide concern and apprehension to internet users, parents, and authorities.
A recent shocking case of trolling in the UK is that of Madeleine McCann’s parents being trolled by Brenda Leyland, who posted 50 tweets a day, accusing them of murdering their missing daughter. Leyland subsequently killed herself, but the case highlighted concerns about trolling as a form of deviance in society. There has been a rise in police-issued warnings, known as Police Information Notices, to suspend trolls in the UK. Custodial sentences have also been meted out in a number of cases. A troll is an internet or social media user who willfully creates discord through a multitude of online behaviors which may incite or upset people through inflammatory or provocative remarks, online stalking, or a combination of both. Trolling behavior disrupts a community discussion by provoking or upsetting the readers. Trolling has also been associated with online harassment where the actions of a user are seen as causing some degree of emotional harm or upset to others. A consistent law to deal with trolling may not exist in most countries, but countries may rely on existing regulations to address such behavior.
While the First Amendment in the US makes it difficult to punish offenders, there is growing pressure to moot more protection for internet users. In Queensland, Australia, a man was charged with internet trolling for defacing two internet tribute sites in 2012. In the UK, a number of regulations are used to regulate trolling. The Malicious Communications Act 1988 covers comments that cause distress or anxiety. The Communications Act of 2003 overlaps with the 1988 act and was used to jail a man who had posted offensive messages to Jade Goody. An additional regulation is the Protection from Harrassment Act of 1997 which deals with online and offline stalking. Due to a number of high profile cases in both the US and UK, trolling has been particularly associated with young people because of the increased uptake of social networking sites at an earlier age compared to their parents, and their proficiency with new media technologies.
Jonathan Bishop’s article "Digital Teens and the Anti-social Prevalence of Troublesome Online Youth Groups" in the International Journal of E-Politics argues against viewing internet trolling as a social deviance associated with young people. The article cogently argues against blaming young people or digital teens for internet trolling, highlighting the inaccuracy of such a perspectives and campaigns for a different social and cultural construction of trolling to understand it better as a phenomenon among young people as they appropriate new technologies into their daily lives to communicate, socialize, create identities, and express themselves. Internet trolling is an emerging area of research, and clearly defining, measuring, and understanding it is a challenge. Jonathan Bishop’s work helps dispel myths that it is young people in poor areas that are responsible for most Internet abuse. Instead he finds trolling is strongly associated with wealthy areas. Bishop has also devised a scale for measuring the attitudes on sites geared towards politics and politicians, so it is possible for managers of the online communities to solely admit members who troll in ways compatible with the attitudes of other members, rather than posting things that go against the grain.
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Dr. Yasmin Ibrahim is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of E-Politics (IJEP), along with Celia Romm Livermore (Wayne State University, USA). Dr. Ibrahim is a Reader in International Business and Communications at Queen Mary, University of London. She researches on new media technologies exploring the cultural dimensions and social implications in the appropriation of ICTs in different contexts and has written on a diverse range of issues. Beyond new media and digital technologies she writes on political communication and political mobilization from cultural perspectives. Her other research interests include globalization, Islam, visual culture and memory studies. She is a visiting professor at MYRA School of Business in Mysore, India.
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