It seems that Noel Edmunds is the latest sleb to ask for responsibility online having met his troll.
Deal or No Deal host Noel Edmonds has called for more online responsibility after arranging a face-to-face meeting with a so-called internet troll who set up a Facebook page called “Somebody please kill Noel Edmonds”.
Well, this is the mindset of the troll, unfortunately – a sad little individual who is unable to interact with the wider world, the manifestation of the greater internet fuckwad theory; a closet bully who will use the anonymity provided by the interwebs to launch his petty crusades; someone so incapable himself that he has to damage what others produce. It’s how they get their pathetic kicks. In Edmunds’ case, asking Facebook to take the necessary action is all that suffices. For the admins of blogs and fora it is a matter of deleting the attacks when they arrive.
He does, however, have a very pertinent point to make:
Edmonds said in a video on website iwannameet that people using social networking websites should police their own behaviour more effectively before they are censored by the “state and politicians”.
And in that, he is, I suspect, correct. We have had plenty of bleating in the media about how the anonymous nature of blogs and fora allow nasty comments to be made and just how dreadful this is (and something must be done, of course). Well, yes, trolls are unpleasant people who thrive on disruption, but their activities are likely to be the trojan horse that will be used against the majority. So Edmunds is right in what he says – it is up to us to deal with it. We are already bound by the laws of libel and have a responsibility to remove any comments that breach them. As for bullying and harassment or just plain trolling, they are easily resolved. Blogging software provides us with the tools we need to manage the problem. Self hosting has a wider range of tools to be sure, but even those using free sites such as Blogger and WordPress.com can delete offending comments. And you can always switch off your computer.
“Because if people are not more responsible you know what is going to happen – the state, those politicians are going to take this huge freedom away, they will try and control it in a way they try and control so many things and that I believe would be an absolute disaster for society and would have massive ramifications for all of us in the future. So responsible use of social media is absolutely vital to life in Britain.”
Yup. Although I suspect that they will try it on anyway…
I ask myself, how many of these trolls addresses, once traced RIGHT back, would end up in whichever “Government” department has interests in regulating the web?
More likely pathetic, fat little wannabe nonentities who sit stabbing the keyboard with their fat little fingers and spattering spittle over the screen as they type their hate and bile.
Easy to deal with, though: delete and ban, delete and ban.
but their activities are likely to be the trojan horse that will be used against the majority
… and indeed, IMHO, are being sent out for that purpose.
Old podgy been around again LR?
You’re right though, trolling is only practiced by true cretins with nothing really worth saying.
😈
They never have yet.
I thought Edmunds handled it pretty well and in a way that could only give credit to him.
On the Guardian’s CIF, where I post quite a bit, there are periodic calls for the end of anonymous commenting, but as I always post in response to such calls, even if I post as “Mark Smith Esq” how does the Guardian or any other blog really know that I am Mark Smith and not George Jones instead? You would need to have an online identity register and every blog forced to authenticate every post against that register. Even if that were a desirable thing, which obviously it isn’t, it would take huge resources and a long time to establish.
The problem of internet trolls does not merit such overweening surveillance. As Longrider correctly says, we have the tools to block trolls, and we should use them.
It would be intolerable if necessary and essential privacy were sacrificed to resolve a problem that can be dealt with in a simpler and more immediate way. As we know, people say “if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear” but tell that to anyone who engages in legal but unconventional sexual activities. Wife swapping and BDSM are legal activities (not withstanding the Spanner judgement) yet people do face discrimination at the hands of employers if it is discovered that they engage in kinky sex. Even school teachers find themselves being sacked if they posed for vanilla porn in their college days and the photos come to light. Privacy is an essential human right.