Tuesday 12 June 2012

New way to handle internet trolls.

One of my many spare time activites is a passion for finding out about the news and things that are happening. I guess that comes with being a gemini right?

Anyhow, for a while now i've been watching closely to something happening online, which i've gotta say, the government's around the world are slow acting on this, but i get the feeling we'll all know soon enough where we stand when it comes to what is classed as free speech and what is classed as hate speech.

For the purpose of this, i'll be giving you an example and trying as best possable to show you the difference between the way you would have handled things in the past and the way you will in the future. The case i reffer to i DO NOT know the final outcome, NOR do i know what action was exactly taken, only what is told in the video you will see as we go along.

Also, please note that these law changes ONLY currently apply to the UK. Other contries may well follow suit, infact websites alone, might start doing the same world-over. But we'll see.

Anyway, so today's topic is internet trolls.

You might have a few questions, so here's some of the most commonly asked ones, i'll try and answer as best possable.

What is an internet troll?
Remember in storys when you were growing up, being told about the troll who lived under the bridge? In most cases bringing misery to people and certainly frightening many a child. Well, forget that. These days an internet troll is a person who says things to provoke a certain type of reaction. They will claim things about certain people (Calling them anything from a pedophile through to being a murderer, when they are aware these claims are not true).

Are what internet trolls say protected under freedom of speech?
To a certain extent, it will depend on what part of the world you live in. I mean look, you've got the westboro baptist church, who preach at soldiers funerals about how they died because gays are accepted etc, yet they're able to legally do that under the freedom of speech act in america. Yet what they preach, is actually hatred.

What is the point in an internet troll?
You tell me. Some people think its entertaining, or amusing etc, but for the victim, it's neither funny or entertaining.



However, we need to look at the laws that have changed.

The laws will now state that " victims have a right to know who is behind malicious messages without the need for costly legal battles.
The powers will be balanced by measures to prevent false claims in order to get material removed."

Basically, we need to know the difference between trolling and hatred.

Let's start with the joy that is hated.

Hatred IS different to trolling. While trolling is done for some peoples amusment / entertainment, hatred isn't. Hatred can be against anything from a person to a product / service or a company etc.

So were going to look at an example of hatred in action so to speak. Note again, this IS NOT trolling.


Now, have a little read of what Jay wrote (Jay's the one not on camera in the video, but you hear him towards the end).

" We have had his videos blocked and pulled through you-tubs flagging hate speech guidelines. Slowly these videos have gotten worse and finally on valentines day this You-Tuber made two specific death threats against both me and Bryan. Enough is enough we felt the need to contact authorities and take action against this person and his hate speech towards not only my family but the GLBT community on You-Tube.

Me and Bryan look at the world in very different ways. Bryan wants to just ignore these type of people and focus on our message of love acceptance and equality...He believe that through our channel and message we can change more hearts and minds of those that would hurt our families. I agree with Bryan to a point. When someone starts to use their free speech as a way to verbally abuse and hurt others. When they use that speech as a way to threaten them with physical harm its time to shine a flash light on them and their activities. People like this You-Tuber want to hide in the dark corners of the web where they can spread their hate and lies.

We have been knocking our heads against the walls the last six months trying to decide on how to share this with you our you tube audience...Finally a you-tuber who follows us made a video that we think explains what we have been up against the last few months....It is so well said we decided that this was the best vehicle to help educate our audience on these people and shine a light on their message of hate.

Never Never Never let them use hate as a way to make you not live your life with peace and happiness.

Jay

PS: Thanks to Devchelle for such a great video.
http://www.youtube.com/user/devchelle2 "

So, would these laws change anything here? A little actually, yes.

How?

Well, instead of just contacting the police and leaving them to do all the detective work (ALWAYS an option, never be afraid to use it), Jay and Bryan would now be able to contact Youtube directly and be given access to the video poster's IP details. Now for those of you who don't know what an IP is. Basically every computer in the world with internet access has one, every mobile device has one etc. Your IP address gives away certain details, like your exact location, who your internet provider is, what websites you have visited, what you have posted and when etc. Now IP details can be changed, however this in certain parts of the world is a crime by itself, however, in the case of Jay / Bryan, the IP address on the video can't be changed, so whoever posted it CAN still be traced.

Under these new laws, Jay / Bryan could gain access to these details and hire a lawyer themselves and take legal action against the person posting them, OR they could do what i presume they did, which is to contact the none emergancy police and report the action.

Key bit here is to ONLY contact the emergancy police if you feel that your life or welfare is under immidiate threat, any other time only contact the none emergancy police phone numbers.


So how is this different to trolling?

Well have a look at this....


Now that is a prime example of what we have come to know as the internet troll.

So what can you now do if you are the victim of action like this.

If you feel it is effecting you, most websites like facebook, twitter, youtube etc have email address' or forms you can fill in on their website which means you can contact their customer service dept. These people would be able to look into your problems and provide you with the details, should they feel that you have been trolled.

Of course, at the time of me writing this, the laws have not yet come into power, so as it currently stands, websites can still refuse to hand you over the details of another person, no matter how bad their abuse it (Dated 12/06/2012).

Again though, once you have these details, you can then take action, by first seeking legal advice.


My main message for this post is to not feel like you have to put up with it. Jay / Bryan leave up a fair amount of the hate comments they get on their video's, to show exactly what they are up against. If they can live with leaving them comments up, then all the power to them. If however they, or yourself, feel that someone has overstepped the line, then contact someone who can help. There's many charities world over, who are dedicated to helping people who are coming under attack online (Also known as cyber-bullying). See what they have to say.

Legal action can be extreme and stressful, but it is soon to be possible to hold people to account over what they post on any website.

The internet is becoming more policed. This is good.

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