I'm starting a paper on internet trolls. Thank you South Park for letting me know this is a problem in our larger culture that people care about, and not just me in my head.
Here's what I've got so far in ways of thought process:
While “Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority” indisputably, a troll is not any anonymous critic on the internet striving to save themselves from a tyrannous government.
To whit: the first amendment protects the Ku Klux Klan member for his speech -- be it in published or unpublished, written or oral -- but not from the actions he may take based on those words.
The difference between the speech of a critic and the “speech” of a troll is that the critic is using the forum of the internet to anonymously criticize something. They are a part of a larger conversation.
The troll is acting out in order to specifically get a negative reaction out of the receiver of that “speech”. It is not in an attempt to start a conversation with the larger culture, it is to create some feeling of power in themselves by reducing another person’s ego. Often trolls do this repeatedly to the same person. If this were physical life, we would call it harassment.
Remedies would likely include injunctions and damages. But internet trolls claim freedom of speech. Not only does this let them get away with it in the short term, but it besmirches this sacred American right in the long term.
Here's what I've got so far in ways of thought process:
While “Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority” indisputably, a troll is not any anonymous critic on the internet striving to save themselves from a tyrannous government.
To whit: the first amendment protects the Ku Klux Klan member for his speech -- be it in published or unpublished, written or oral -- but not from the actions he may take based on those words.
The difference between the speech of a critic and the “speech” of a troll is that the critic is using the forum of the internet to anonymously criticize something. They are a part of a larger conversation.
The troll is acting out in order to specifically get a negative reaction out of the receiver of that “speech”. It is not in an attempt to start a conversation with the larger culture, it is to create some feeling of power in themselves by reducing another person’s ego. Often trolls do this repeatedly to the same person. If this were physical life, we would call it harassment.
Remedies would likely include injunctions and damages. But internet trolls claim freedom of speech. Not only does this let them get away with it in the short term, but it besmirches this sacred American right in the long term.
I hope some trolls will get on my comments and give me something to quote.
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