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People Turning on Trolls?
Renegade:
Just saw this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/19/new-internet-age-trolls
A new internet age? Web users turn on 'trolls'
Two recent online 'outings' suggest that attitudes towards online anonymity may have shifted
When mourners arrived at the peace park in Maple Ridge, Vancouver, to pay tribute to Amanda Todd this week, few could have realised quite how widely the effects of the 15-year-old's death were being felt.
News of her suicide, apparently as a result of years of cyberbullying, provoked the internet vigilante group Anonymous to reveal the personal details of the man it says tormented her under an online pseudonym.
It came in the same week that an American journalist outed the real-life identity of one of the "biggest trolls on the web" as Michael Brutsch, a man accused of posting sexualised images of underage girls and graphic images of domestic violence on Reddit, the hugely popular open-source website now considered so influential it recently hosted a question and answer session with Barack Obama.
Does this represent a turning point in the history of the web, when the cloak of anonymity was torn away from internet trolls?
"This has been a wake-up call to the people who participate in these online communities to really think through what their responsibilities are," said Zeynep Tufekci, of the centre for information technology policy at Princeton University. The events surrounding the exposure of Brutsch's identity, as well as that of Todd's alleged tormentor, represent a sea change, according to Tufekci. "People are realising they cannot afford to have this 'live and let live' ethos to what is posted on their site. I feel like this is a social movement on a par with the Arab spring."
--- End quote ---
Figured a few people may be interested.
Will we see a more polite Internet going forward? Dunno.
Tuxman:
I was a troll before the WWW gained a wide audience.
SQUIDMAN:
Went and read the art. at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/11/amanda-todd-suicide-bullying_n_1959909.html
She needed someone to help her out, and wish somebody could have! I think her mom if she knew could have gotten police involved, I think Anonymos did the right thing turning one of the guys in, couldn't help with the kids at the school beating her up. We and I did alot of stupid things when I was young, glad the internet, and SM wasn't around then. I DON'T think this is a turning point, just a small sad story, that will be old news in a week.
40hz:
If you make a habit of hurting and annoying people, it's only a matter of time before they start hitting back. That should come as no surprise to anyone.
As far as all this being a sea change? Maybe nothing quite that dramatic. But I think it's certainly an indication that people have become familiar enough with the web, and the technology behind it, that they now realize they're not as helpless as they once thought.
These particular stories will soon be old news.
But far from it being over, I think this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Renegade:
Saw this:
People Turning on Trolls?
Topical anyways.
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