BBC Tracks Down And Confronts An Internet Troll
from the in-case-you're-wondering dept
Lots of people wonder what internet trolls are thinking in trying to get their kicks out of being as obnoxious as possible online... and some folks at the BBC apparently were able to track down and confront an individual who had a reputation for highly obnoxious trolling -- writing mean messages on Facebook tribute pages for people who were murdered. I'm not a huge fan of "confrontation" journalism, which feels pretty manufactured, but there is something amusing about watching the guy try to ignore the issue for a while, before realizing he can't resist and he has to respond. It's kind of a form of reverse trolling, where he fell for it...It's not the most enlightening of interviews, but given the general interest some people have in trolling, I figured some folks might find it interesting.
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Says the anonymous coward.
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you're one too, hypocrite.
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The Internet should be sorted by Intelligence.
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They were able to track him down, without any new laws being made.
That's all that matters, right?
I mean, let's take the case of the guy who's wife came up missing, then 2 years later, after his kids were taken away, he still managed to kill them, and himself, and blow the house up.
You will NEVER stop freaks, you will NEVER stop murder.
The only thing you can do is make sure there is a legit path to tracking them down and making sure justice is done.
Even sometimes, there isn't anything you can do. Adding more laws won't help.
The same can be applied to copyright....
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+10000 Trolling points to you Sir
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I'm glad some people still appreciate art when they see it.
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If I own this world, I'd get rid of u an' all ur kind. It would fuckin' serve u an' them right, u shit head.
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Don't feed the troll
You do not need new laws banning anonymity, just a bit, a tiny bit, of sense.
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Re: Don't feed the troll
"We have to protect the {stupid} people from doing stuff online that might upset them."
Whatever happened to personal responsibility and having a backbone? If you sent a scammer money, well I hope you learned your lesson. If a troll hurts your feelings, get over it, they don't know you, you don't know them, fuck'm.
We don't need laws protecting peoples feelings and there are already laws in place for the scams. People just need to pay attention to what they are doing.
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Re: Re: Don't feed the troll
From Half Baked: Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, you're cool, and fuck you, I'm out!
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Re: Re: Don't feed the troll
Wait, are you saying you disagree with the laws against fraud?
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Re: Re: Re: Don't feed the troll
MAJikMARCer stated "...there are already laws in place for the scams."
PT Barnum - "There's a sucker born every minute."
John Wayne - "Life's hard, its harder when your stupid."
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Don't feed the troll
Nyuk nyuk.
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Re: Re: Don't feed the troll
I say to hell with free speech if you're going to misuse it. If people aren't careful not to fuck with other people online or offline, they deserve to have their asses ahnded to them.
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Re: Re: Don't feed the troll
you think that's alright to be a jerk to everyone online? you might get your ass handed to you.
laws deserve to be made and used on people who are dickheads to others. didn't your teach you that if you can't say something nice, you shouldn't say anything at all? it's sad that not many people seem to know that nowadays.
i mean, what i someone's threatening you online? that person deserves to be sent to jail. and the ones who tell trolled victims to grow some balls are the ones who need to grow balls. same thing goes for trolls.
if trolls don't like stuff being said to them, then they shouldn't say it online.
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Re: Re: Re: Don't feed the troll
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Re: Don't feed the troll
Common Sense
Common Courtesy
Common Decency
What's the common theme? None of them are all that common any more!
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Re: Re: Don't feed the troll
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Troll Study
I know some of it is the lower inhibitions that come with being somewhat anonymous and the physical and mental distance one is from the person they speak of. But I wonder if there is a societal aspect to trolling that could be studied if more are identified and confronted.
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Re: Troll Study
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Re: Troll Study
That is the background of most trolls.
People who can't accept something and want others to know how they feel about it.
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Re: Troll Study
There have been a lot of others specifically about Trolling though mostly 5-10yrs old now. They are still relevant, though places like Facebook being not as group interactive as older places like "The Palace", Geocities, Biancas, or "The Well" et.al are a lot different for troll-like behaviour since the troll really gets a different style of feedback nowadays
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You are a Troll, let's dissect your sick brain.
You are one of the worst Internet trolls I have ever seen.
Maybe someday someone will figure out a good way to fix your wagon. Yes like I read you say, you are an asshole, the sick part of it is that you are proud of it.
You think you are so clever, when in fact you are a worthless piece of shit.
Why are you pretending you are not a troll?
Does that make you feel better about your prevented sick existence?
By the way you are wrong about WWII, the Germans were winning and if the USA did not come into WWII we would all be writing in German now.
Trolls like you should learn what they are talking about.
How many people do you think would like to see you in jail?
I bet many hundreds of people wish you were in jail.
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Re: You are a Troll, let's dissect your sick brain.
I know it is debatable about WWII and some experts do agree with you that the tide had turned to the Allied Forces, however I talked with people that were in WWII and they said it could have gone either way.
I mean how does one know exactly when you go from losing to winning?
It is not binary, and for sure if the USA did not enter the war many more lives would have been lost and the war would have continued longer. Also what if the nuclear bomb was not developed, then WWII would have lasted much longer, or what if the Axis powers would have developed the nuclear bomb first?
So I want you to see that I even treat sophisticated clever evil trolls like you fairly.
Just because you are full of shit and do not know what you are talking about most of the time, in this case there is merit to your arguments about WWII.
Also it helps me figure out where you may originally be from. I wonder if you are living in America?
I think you were not born in America, maybe you come from the UK?
Please do not misunderstand me, even though you are clever, I still think you are a worthless piece of shit and your threats of what you might do to me just make me laugh at you.
What are you going to do about that AssClown?
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Re: You are a Troll, let's dissect your sick brain.
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I don't fault trolls for their behavior. I fault those who can't ignore them. When they get it in their heads the trolls are the ones with the bad behavior, it's amazing there's still room left to get to the bottom of the barrel.
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There are trolls are who so disruptive that they deserve to be banned. Hell, they spam so much that no one can take it naymore. Therefore, you should be faulting trolls instead of people who can't ignore them.
I mean, suppose there are trolsl who make good on their threats. What if you're one fo thsoe victims who gets antagonized by trolls in real life?
You should be ashamed of what you typed 'cause it sounds like you want to side with trolls. For that, you oughtta get hanged.
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Bloody Journalists
This investigation I know well would be passed on to the Police and forms a first step in what could well be a Court case.
I should also add that some journalists misuse this investigative power to promote their own biased goals. For example they may focus on hammer attacks in one region and notice how some third party mugging website says you can buy really good hammers at such and such a place. Then despite this exact store selling thousands of hammers for a vast array of lawful purposes, and publicly condemning very rare unlawful use, these journalists can still report this store to the Police as the supplier of violent weapons! Not to forget this example journalist did not even talk to said store to get their input.
Oddly enough my exact electronics situation based on that journalistic example, in an 3-page article wrote by Paul Malley, was also something I discussed directly with one BBC journalist who just wrote it off as "old news"
The point to all this off-target rambling is that the Police and the main victim took this news report all too seriously resulting in a raid and seizure of my own company hardware. They were of course wrong in their failed case, once the record could be set straight, but there was still millions in damages done.
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You could ask the same question to pirates about ripping off musicians, and you'd get the same answer.
Not a coincidence.
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Fixed that for you.
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You could ask the same question to music labels about ripping off musicians and the rest of the public, and you'd get the same answer.
Not a coincidence.
Fixed it even better for him.
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suppose i terrorize u all i want and order u not to defend urself. would u want 'n' like that. if so, don't be surprised once u end up dead.
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This isn't good news
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Re: This isn't good news
We can question their motives in a given situation - and that already happens: trashy papers face a lot of public backlash when their tactics get too dirty - and legal backlash if their tactics break the law. But the simple concept of tracking someone down to get an interview? That's fundamental to journalism.
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Re: This isn't good news
A news organization can take it upon itself to investigate whatever it wants. There's no reason to stop them.
If you do something they find newsworthy, then they can report on it. That's their job.
If it isn't newsworthy, then it'd be stupid for them to track you down.
Not really a problem here.
You're afraid that a NEWS AGENCY will try to perform a d0x? The people interesting enough to make the news will either not care, or be smart enough to avoid it. How many hackers work for CNN?
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Re: Re: This isn't good news
A news organization can take it upon itself to investigate whatever it wants. There's no reason to stop them."
That's not the issue. The issue is that they're playing 'thought police' with internet users. If they can do it, who can't? People object whenever private parties go hunting internet users, so why is this ok? The person in question may've been out of line with his comments but that's still not justification because there's nobody drawing a line in the sand. Now, if it were a pedophile or a murderer, that would be different.
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Re: Re: Re: This isn't good news
As long as the government doesn't do it, and as long as it's not harassment, anyone can do it. To say otherwise is taking away their free speech rights.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: This isn't good news
I don't know about free speech: it's just freedom.
There is no law against tracking someone down. There are laws against plenty of things one might do in the course of tracking someone down (hacking their accounts, for example) and obviously doing any of those things is illegal. But to simply track someone down using whatever legal, publicly available means and information you can find? How is that not right smack dab in the middle of the definition of "freedom"?
Now, if you're motives are bad, then people are going to think you're an asshole even if your methods are sound. And that's good: shame is a powerful social tool. But there's no law against being an asshole. Freedom would be meaningless if you were only free to do nice things that everyone approves of.
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Meaning you don't approve of what was done, or you think it should be illegal to find someone and ask him questions? (I'm just assuming the reporter didn't do anything illegal in finding this guy)
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: This isn't good news
It's when you start wondering whether they "can" do this or are "free" to do so that I get concerned - because they absolutely can, and absolutely are. But, if you feel they're being jerks about it, then I fully encourage you to do condemn them for their choices, so long as you recognize they had every right to make those choices.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: This isn't good news
The reality is the someone, somewhere knew who this guy was before they went to the Beeb and the Beeb outed him. Someone in the REAL world.
Those few trolls I've met in the real world are quite proud of what they do and will spill it out to anyone who will listen about how "tough" they are and how they're putting people in their place who need to be put there. I wouldn't say they're all that hard to find by the media or, if necessary, the police.
They lose their anonymity the moment they open their mouth in a bar, pub or coffee shop. I suspect that's what's happened here.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: This isn't good news
To have freedom, you have to use it responsibly and appropriately.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: This isn't good news
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Troll Hunting
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Re: Troll Hunting
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Troll Hunting
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Re: Troll Hunting
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Troll Hunting
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Congratulations......
Bear in mind; you could put him in jail or hospital for 9 weeks or 9 decades and he wouldn't change. He can't. It's something we just must deal with. Could be worse. He might have been elected or become a cop.
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Re: Congratulations......
What if I'm sociopathic and can do whatever harm I want to u? Woudl u want to deal with me all ur life? If so, dont' blame me if I end put an end tou.
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Re: Re: Congratulations......
This isn't text messaging, you should learn how to use the word "you".
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Re: Re: Re: Congratulations......
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And, it is getting worse
http://news.techeye.net/internet/patent-trolling-hits-new-heights
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Re: And, it is getting worse
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Maybe take a lesson from Twitter...
Loosing an audience for your trolling won't stop you entirely, but it DOES limit the overall volume of offensiveness while simultaneously not imposing on anyones right to speak freely.
You can speak, I just have a right to ignore.
On the other hand, this has the potential to exacerbate "echo chamber" issues on the net. Every solution has its unintended consequences, I guess.
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Re: Maybe take a lesson from Twitter...
2) Unless that list was able to contain the ENTIRE facebook community, it simply wouldn't work. There will always be some new asshat who's wondering if Metroid's gun is attached to his hand or if it's a part of his suit.
You can ignore and try to block out trolls all you like, but I've seen situaions where trolls have posted things in forums or in chats in games, gotten no reaction, and just repost sometime later. At this point they believe the whole world is under their bridge.
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Re: Re: Maybe take a lesson from Twitter...
How long before someone shouts at you about this one? :-)
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Re: Re: Maybe take a lesson from Twitter...
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Re: Re: Re: Maybe take a lesson from Twitter...
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Re: Re: Maybe take a lesson from Twitter...
Looks like it took about 100 minutes (though that wasn't really shouting).
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Grow up!
Sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never harm you. Unless you let them (I added that bit).
If you stand up in front of the world shouting "look at me, look at me!"
Then you need to expect abuse no matter what it is you're exposing to the world, and that includes grieving.
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Re: Grow up!
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Re: Re: Grow up!
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Re: Grow up!
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Re: Re: Grow up!
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Re: Grow up!
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Re: Re: Grow up!
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Re: Re: Re: Grow up!
Sarah is making millions, while this guy is being hunted down like he is some sort of child predator...
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Re: Grow up!
it seems to me that what you're doing is expecting others to be unemotional and unquestioning robots. well, how woudl you like it other people do that to you?
think about i'm telling you.
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Re: Re: Grow up!
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I wonder
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Re: I wonder
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Re: Re: I wonder
The riff raff cannot be expected to understand nuance and ironic humor.
Many look up the word troll on a site most likely authored by one and/or find some simplistic and literalist definition to then enable themselves to troll the internet in a desperate cry for attention.
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Re: Re: Re: I wonder
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oh, the humanity
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What about all the good things trolls do?
Have we learned nothing from the Wizard of Oz?
If Dorothy had melted Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, then she might never have gotten home.
The BBC, like the Wicked Witch of the West is just dispatching a gang of flying monkeys and hoping one of them will hurl feces at the correct target.
Why even bother explaining to these cyber-hysterics, that, like assholes, in the real world, they come in a variety of off color flavors.
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Re: What about all the good things trolls do?
That's bullcrap. Trolls don't do anything good. All they do is fuck with innocent people. And so, they can blow their damn brains out for all I care.
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"In real life you're just a bitch with a keyboard."
The only reason they say a quarter of what they is no one has figured out how to punch their noses in through the internet yet.
Get them in real life and they would back off real quick.
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If you lie, you only do that for a really necessary reason.
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Thick or what?
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trolling confrontation
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Re: trolling confrontation
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troll tracking
When people brush it off as a "tiny bit of criticism" and "just a few words" it's often much more vile trolling like the lady who had some troll sending her pictures of her dead son hanging himself! I think the sort of person who does that deserves to be tracked down and confronted. If that happened to one of my family members, I wouldn't be able to just brush it off and we all know the police don't bother these days.
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Re: troll tracking
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Re: troll tracking
To make up for you my nasty replies, I support you your anti-trolling attitude. Besides, I was victim of some trolls before and I hate it.
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Re: troll tracking
I never posted anything bad to you. So there's no need for me to apologize. But if I did post nastily to you, I'd owe you an apology.
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