Cybertrolls pile on mourners' pain

[Ptarmigan]

Every online community including CC has had problems with trolls.

Cybertrolls pile on mourners' pain
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7283797.html

From the article:

Phillips said many trolls have up to six Facebook profile pages at a time. Though she does not have specific statistics, she has found most trolls are men between 18 and 34 and said that most are college-educated. She said trolls are rebelling against "media hype" surrounding the youths' deaths and reacting to strangers who post messages of condolences on memorial pages for people they never met.

No surprise right there. I figure they are losers. If I had to guess, they are probably anti-social.

Here is a profile of an Internet stalker, which applies well to trolls.

• lives in a 1-room apartment which hasn't been cleaned for months - if ever

• has stacks of pornographic magazines in his bedroom area

• has poor personal hygiene

• has poor table manners

• has poor social etiquette

• hasn't changed the sheets on his bed for months, which are now best described as crusty

• has a bathroom, the state of which doesn't bear thinking about

• lives on pizza and beer/coke, the remnants of which litter his apartment

• may have an unusual pet (eg ferret) which has free run of the apartment

• is either significantly over- or under-weight

• has a small moustache or other facial hair

• has not held down any job for more than a couple of years, probably less

• has no friends

• has no life outside the Internet

http://www.bullyonline.org/related/stalking.htm

[thundley4]

The behavior so far has not been targeted by legislation in the U.S. because of strong free speech protections.

I call BS on this.  Free speech may protect the assholes from Westboro since they are on public property, but things done on the internet are done on privately owned sites.  The trolls on Facebook that are mentioned in the article, are most likely violating TOS.  Since there is no free speech on private property, laws could be passed even if they only involved civil penalties against the trolls.

[Ptarmigan]

I call BS on this.  Free speech may protect the assholes from Westboro since they are on public property, but things done on the internet are done on privately owned sites.  The trolls on Facebook that are mentioned in the article, are most likely violating TOS.  Since there is no free speech on private property, laws could be passed even if they only involved civil penalties against the trolls.

Free speech only protects from the government. Facebook or Conservative Cave is private property.

[thundley4]

Free speech only protects from the government. Facebook or Conservative Cave is private property.

That's my point.  Laws could be passed that give owners of websites some sort of civil redress against people that do this. I don't mean the hit and run type of trolls, but the ones that repeatedly do it.