Again, the media seems intent upon misusing the term “trolling” when describing an activity that is bullying or even cyber-stalking.
Conservative MP Louise Mensch has condemned “misogynistic” internet trolls after being inundated with online abuse, including sexist insults, sexually graphic comments and violent threats.
…
The insults, most of which are too explicit to be repeated, included references to her appearance, sexuality and even threatened criminal violence.
Some other accused her of engaging an intimate relationship with Rupert Murdoch while others speculated crudely as to whether they found her attractive.
The comments, made on Twitter and including a vast array of sexist name-calling, have provoked a wave of outrage on the social media website, as supporters leapt to her defence.
Nope, this is not trolling. Trolling is an activity that is specific to online fora and blogs. It is when someone is deliberately contrary with the aim of stirring up an argument – if they create a flame war, they are in virtual heaven. What Ms Mensch has experienced is some particularly nasty bullying, but trolling, it ain’t. So, yet again, the media re being lazy, lazy, lazy.
The media loves their buzzwords. To figure out what trolling really is, you’ve got to look at the source of the word.
It’s a fishing reference, not a Bros. Grimm reference.
Trolling has been reduced to just being mean thanks to the laziness of wannabe trolls.
LR, should we expect anything more of them? Lazy, label constrained thinking.
XX So, yet again, the media re being lazy, lazy, lazy. XX
Disagree.
Not “lazy”. They are, in fact, working extremely hard. AND, they are totaly aware of what they are doing.
ALL media scum are WELL aquainted with bloggs, and indeed anything to do with the web. They KNOW the difference. This is a deliberate falsification of facts, to obtain a desired effect.
In short, as I understand it, TROLLING.
So, has a Twittermob demanded mass arrests about this? No? I’d have thought threatening to smash someone with a hammer was as illegal as making racist comments, actually far more illegal, but I guess when the target isn’t an approved minority the guardians of the nation’s morals just couldn’t give a fuck.
They might even be the same people tweeting her.