FINAL PROJECT: TROLLING AND HARASSMENT
Trolling & Harassment
History
Trolling and harassment are a huge problem individuals face every day, especially millennials. Since technology is advancing rapidly every day, social media platforms are becoming more convenient in people’s lives. For that reason, we must be aware of the negative effects that can come along with new changes.
Trolling and harassment are relevant to the study of digital media and society because social media will only keep growing throughout the years. Meaning, the digital world will become a part of society and will become a social norm. There is a lot of history that comes with the timeline of social media. It wasn’t too long ago when there was no such thing as social media platforms. According to an article called Phrasee on August 6th, 1991 the world wide web was released to the public. Not long after that in 1997 the first social network Six Degree was discovered. From there many platforms were introduced to the world. In December 2002 LinkedIn was born, MySpace came about in August 2003, Facebook in 2004 and the timeline keeps going. I specifically remember when MySpace and Facebook were exposed to the world. Now, looking at the most popular social media platforms we have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik-Tok, LinkedIn and so much more.
From what I could find, the first major cyberbullying case occurred in 2007. According to The History of Cyberbullying it says, “one of the earliest cases occurred in 2007 when 13-year-old Tina Meier died by suicide after neighbors created a fake Myspace profile under the name “Josh Evans” to harass her” (Bark Team). Social media allows people to gain the power to attack others without having to face them in person. Many times, when trolls find their victims, they usually attack others just for “entertainment.” People are not aware of the dangers and measures others will take just to get away from their trolls. Feeling trapped and not knowing how to get away can cause people to do more harm to themselves. Social media can be an extremely dangerous world.
We need to understand how trolling and harassment starts, how to know when you are being trolled/harassed and how to deal with trolling and harassment properly. After all, social media will only become more dependable in this world, but we need to be aware of the dangers it can bring.
Why/How Trolling & Harassment Starts
Many people are trolled or harassed via social media every day. While that may be, there are three major parts people can have when it comes to online trolling and harassment. We first have the trolls, then we have the victims and lastly, we have witnesses. Not only do we need to make sure we do not become a victim, but we must also watch out for our friends and make sure they are not getting attacked. Many people talk about privacy when it comes to social media, but the internet is not as private as many believe. There is always a way to find people’s personal information and use that against them. For example, if a troll is harassing someone on their personal account, the shares or retweets they get makes that harassment visible to many more people. With online trolling and harassment, it is usually done where others can see it, but no one speaks up about it. We do not need to just understand how this occurs but understand that even if we are not the one who is getting victimized, we can still speak up about it.
Understanding how this may occur is especially important. In a reading I found The Dark Tetrad, negative social potency and trolling behaviours Crack and March discuss how poor social media reward can motivate people to troll/harass others from a psychological point. Crack and March had five personality traits they used to run this test, narcissism, machiavellianism, psychopathy, sadism and social reward. Looking at these traits, researchers found that “these results show that individual trolling behaviour may be better explained by negative social reward motivation than negative personality traits.” This article found that it is not always what traits the attacker lacks, rather the attention they are given. Meaning, individuals who are behind the trolling and harassment usually lack social attention which leads them to attacking others whom they may be jealous of or who have bigger social attention than they do.
Not only is trolling and harassment about the victims, it is also about the witnesses who do not say anything when they see it. Trolling and harassment start with the attackers but can end either with the victims or the witnesses. Stats show that “41% of Americans have been personally subjected to harassing behavior online, and an even larger share (66%) has witnessed these behaviors directed at others” (Duggan). Trolling and harassment via social media can become extremely dangerous. These stats show that more people become witnesses to these attackers rather than victims. In research from Pew Research Online Harassment 2017 some minor cases can include name-calling, purposeful embarrassment, physical threats and major cases can lead to sustained harassment, stalking and sexual harassment. Trolling and harassment can vary with every situation. This is just a glimpse of how trolling and harassment starts but we must be knowledgeable of when we are being victimized.
How to know when you are being Trolled & Harassed
In some cases, it is a little difficult to know when you are being trolled or harassed via social media. Sometimes it can be because people do not think it can happen to them or because they are not completely sure what things can be claimed as trolling or harassment. GFC Global posted an article The Now: What is Trolling discussing the importance of trolling. In some cases, it says attackers will “often make ridiculous statements about the subject at hand, again with the expectation that they will get an emotional response out of people. Trolls won’t necessarily believe the outrageous claims they make, but their goal is to convince you that they do believe it.” If someone is constantly commenting negative or harmful things on any of your posts, you are most likely being trolled. Once the troll sees they are getting a reach out of you, this makes it more fun for them because that is their ultimate goal.
In week thirteen of a course I have been taking, Digital Media and Society, we talked about trolling and harassment. There was this article we read by Lindy West called What happened when I confronted my Cruelest Troll. She was repeatedly attacked via social media and she just learned to deal with it. At one point, if you read the article, a troll took the game too far. West wrote “someone- bored, apparently, with the usual angles of harassment- had made a fake Twitter account purporting to be my dead dad, featuring a stolen, beloved photo of him, for no reason than to hurt me.” At this point, West knew this troll had taken it too far. In her reading she explained how being trolled and harassed has become a normal thing in her life, but this should not be normalized. Many people think just because of the choices they make in life are reasons enough to be attacked via social media when, in reality they aren’t. Explained in West’s article, social media platforms do allow people to report inappropriate things but then the decision on what to do relies in their hands. West took it upon herself to publicly approach her troll and the next morning the troll emailed and apologized to her.
As you can see, trolling and harassment via social media is done by people who are bored or who want to start stuff. In week fourteen of my course we talked about privacy. This article Why Privacy Matters even if you have ‘Nothing to Hide’ says, “privacy can be invaded by the disclosure of your deepest secrets” (Solove). Trolls are invading people’s privacy, life and public space when they decide to harass another person online. Trolls try to gain information and use that against their victims. Both privacy and online harassment are ways to invade someone’s life. Sometimes these trolls are not aware of the damage they are doing until they are approached, or the victim takes actions into their own hands. Knowing when you are being trolled is particularly important and how to deal with them is even more important.
How to deal with being Trolled or Harassed
“There is no winning in silence” (unknown). When you are being trolled or harassed via social media, or in general, you should never silence yourself. Many women, including myself have been a victim at one point. In a reading from a course I have been taking, Digital Media and Society, it discusses the discomfort, specifically that women face when they are harassed. Sarah Sobieraj wrote an article called Bitch, slut, skank, cunt: patterned resistance to women’s visibility in digital publics. In her reading research showed that women constrain their behaviors in response to prior experience with harassment and the fear intimidation and violence finds that harassment inhibits women’s use of public space, even when no harassment transpires, as fear that it might occur diminishes their comfort and freedom, acting as a form of oppression even in absentia” (pg. 1708). Once someone is targeted multiple times, their public space is violated.
Speaking from experience, I have been trolled and harassed on Instagram for many years now. I have had people make fake accounts of me trying to publicly embarrass me. I have also had people make fake accounts to personally attack my personal accounts. It wasn’t until recently that I realized I should have taken these matters further because now there are fake accounts out there of me that can show up in my future, then what evidence do I have to show I didn’t make these accounts? At some point, you need to take matters further and face your troll.
There are many ways you can deal with being trolled or harassed. In this article Trolled Online: What you can do when you’re being Bullied on Social Media, they listed a few things to help deal with trolling and harassment. You can ignore the troll, block them, report them, discuss the issue, expose them or leave the site. These are simple ways to deal with trolling and harassment without getting others involved. Although these are ways to deal with trolls, there are still various outcomes that can come from these actions. Like I said above, I ignored my trolls for years by blocking them and reporting their pages, but it still constantly happens and will show up in my future. If the accounts that are harassing you are not exposing your personal business, I would say block them and report the page. Once you do that if you keep getting harassed you can take matters further.
Looking at criminal laws and civil laws, sometimes these accounts can become cases. Criminal laws do not have anything to do with trolling, but if your troll is stalking, harassing, or bullying you, it can become a criminal case. If your troll is using false language or threatening you, that becomes a civil case. These are two types of cases that your trolls can face once you take matters further. Some other steps you can do to deal with online trolling is call the police or get a lawyer to look further into the matter. With online trolling and harassment, it is extremely hard to make a case when the troll isn’t being aggressive enough or using aggressive enough behavior in the eyes of the court. There are many steps to take to deal with online trolling and harassment, just know silence is not one of them.
Conclusion
Looking at my research, there is no way to completely stop trolling and harassment, but there are many ways to deal with it. People must be aware of what online harassment looks like and must take actions when things get too far. It is especially important for everyone to take notice in this matter because if not, it can become normalized and accepted. We, as a people, do not need any more segregation-based situations. There already are too many segregation issues in today’s society. Trolling and harassment do not need to become one of those issues and should not become a cause to conform to a norm.
Subsequently, online trolling and harassment can completely ruin someone’s life and personal space. No one should bully anyone else into making them feel uncomfortable in their social world. The internet is supposed to be a fun, entertaining and worldwide way to stay connected to others. The internet will never be a completely private world, but there are settings that allow you to keep some things private from certain people. Users’ must be more aware of what they post online because hackers can find a way to get access to it and this can lead to them using it as a leverage.
It is important to understand these matters. With knowledge we can learn to take control and try to prevent online trolling and harassment from going too far. The interaction of digital media and society is only growing and with any new form of living, there will always be negatives that come with it. It is not about stopping the use of social media, but to learn to take control and fight for sanity and safety.
REFERENCES
- Craker, N., & March, E. (2016). The dark side of Facebook®: The Dark Tetrad, negative social potency, and trolling behaviours. Personality and Individual Differences, 102, 79–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.06.04
- Duggan, M. (2019, December 31). Online Harassment 2017. Retrieved May 03, 2020, from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/07/11/online-harassment-2017
- The history of social media: A timeline. (2020, February 28). Retrieved May 03, 2020, from https://phrasee.co/the-history-of-social-media-a-timeline/
- Markey, L., Volek, T., Johnson, M., & Kautsch, M. (2013). Starving the trolls: How the news media and harassment victims can fight harmful speech online (ProQuest Dissertations Publishing). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1413302933/
- Sobieraj, S., & Tufts University. (n.d.). Bitch, slut, skank, cunt: Patterned resistance to women’s visibility in digital publics. Retrieved May 03, 2020, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1348535
- Solove, D. J. (2011, May 15). Why Privacy Even Matters If You Have ‘Nothing to Hide’. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/dopey/Downloads/Solove_Why%20Privacy%20Matters.pdf
- Team, T. (2020, April 07). The History of Cyberbullying. Retrieved May 03, 2020, from https://www.bark.us/blog/the-history-of-cyberbullying/
- The Now: What is Trolling? (n.d.). Retrieved May 03, 2020, from https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/thenow/what-is-trolling/1/
- Trolled Online: What You Can Do When You’re Bullied on … (n.d.). Retrieved May 3, 2020, from https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/trolled-online-what-to-do-when-bullied-social-media.html
- What happened when I confronted my cruellest troll … (n.d.). Retrieved May 3, 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/02/what-happened-confronted-cruellest-troll-lindy-west
