Week 10: Trolling

Trolling is the act of antagonizing, harassing or pranking others on the internet. Trolling can be as harmless as uploading a video with a Rick Roll on YouTube, or as serious as posting death threats to someone. This behavior manifests itself all over the Internet. It appears in comments for videos or articles, on social media in online chats or any number of other ways. Sometimes trolling is targeted at a specific person, such as in the case of Zoe Quinn, who was harassed mercilessly, with people even going so far as to call her to troll. Other times, trolling just sets out to implement a trap to prank any unwitting web surfer.

Technology companies do have an ethical obligation to ensure that their product is not propagating or facilitating online bullying. This is a very difficult issue to tackle, however. With social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook, it is impossible to monitor everything to prevent cyberbullying, and thus some does slip through the cracks. Facebook does allow users to report other users for violating their harassment policy, however this is not perfect either. Also, Twitter has been stepping up its efforts to curb harassment. The WAM program, led by Jaclyn Friedman, allows users to report harassment or other violations. This program, however, is not perfect as some people aren’t aware of it or don’t know how to use it.

I find Gamergate to be very disturbing. It’s incredible that so many people would unite for such a messed up purpose as try to bully women out of the gaming industry. The trolls leveraged the Internet’s ability to spread sentiment quickly to a lot of people to spread their message and recruit additional cohorts. This turned into a large movement that had a significant negative impact on several people’s lives. Unfortunately the things that make the Internet such a great tool can be leveraged for people’s unethical agendas. The Internet provides a place where you can communicate with many likeminded people all around the world. Unfortunately, in this case, it was used to harass and threaten several women. I don’t think this type of behavior should be tolerated as it has the potential to cause serious harm in the event that the person being attacked is effected enough to try and commit suicide or develop depression or some other psychological disorder. It is difficult to think of a definitive solution to the issues presented by the abuse of the Internet as it has become so huge and widespread.

Anonymity on the Internet is a double-edged sword. It has the capacity to be very helpful for someone to talk about serious personal issues without revealing their identity, or hide from people who know them in real life that might want to cyberbully them, as is pointed out in The Real Name Fallacy. On the other hand, it has the capacity to be quite damaging as people seem more capable of making hurtful comments when they know there will be no repercussions. I don’t think that there is any “right” policy as far as requiring real names. Either way, there will be tradeoffs. It is up to each individual policy maker to ensure that they try and mitigate the negatives.

Certain types of trolling are a major problem on the Internet. Trolling that is hateful or malicious is a major problem as it is very widespread and hurtful. On the other hand, trolling that is done in jest, not geared towards attacking individuals is harmless I feel. While it is difficult to tell where to draw the line between protecting people’s freedom of speech and preventing destructive trolling, I think that websites should begin to try and single out cyber bullying, or destructive trolling and eliminate it. People have the right to free speech, but not the right to bully or harass.