Question 1: Is trolling a specific and set behavior- are there layers to trolling as time evolves?
As we move towards a digitized world, trolling has found its way to evolve through online communities. Many participants of social media understand trolling to be an action caused to disrupt communities. In eBook titled “ The Origins of Trolling”, author Philips expresses the difference in trolling. Trolling is a set of different behaviors depending on the individual as well as the setting and context. In some cases, trolling can be aggressive, other forms of trolling can include longevity, independent, and community based. Trolling isn’t simply just causing disruption; many online trolls are able to target individuals and say almost anything without any repercussions.
Question 2: Can being a victim of cybercrime truly affect your reputation in a real-life setting- can you truly detach from social media at any point?
Cybercrimes like cyber-harassment and cyber-stalking have left many of their victims struggling to escape from virtual world and reality. Majority of real-life situations like looking for a job, building personal relationships, academic journey, etc. All of these experiences rely on the reputation one has online. In eBook titled “ Hate Crimes in Cyberspace”, Citron mentions how cyber harassment victims struggle to find jobs due to their reputation being tarnished. Often times cyber harassment victims find themselves having to uproot their lives and wipe their existence of social media completely. Taking part in the digitized world means the unconscious mending of online you and reality you. There is no separation of online persona and physical existence, that’s why cybercrimes truly affect people in real-life situations rather than solely staying online.
Question 3: Are online communities truly founded on the principles of connection, more specifically are these online communities spreading hateful agenda?
I believe online communities are a way to practice community and connection through similarities, nonetheless, individuals can quicky turn community into control over beliefs. In the documentary titled “ The Anti-social Network”, the documentary dives into the origins of 2-chan, 4-chan, and 8-chan- all these titles are online forums that were created under the origin of 2-chan. 2-chan was an online forum created in hopes for people to share common interest in Japanese entertainment and humor. As 2-chan gains momentum in popularity, more people join and start changing the trajectory of 2-chan. 4-chan, 6-chan, and 8-chan were created to spread sexist, racist, conspiracy theories, and white supremacy. All these online forums used their platforms to spread misinformation that led to individuals foster hate for marginalized groups without repercussion.
Question 4: Are we able to truly hold trolls accountable- does trolling remove accountability and repercussing?
Leslie Jones was unfortunately one of many victims affected by online abuse. Jones was subjected to multiple hacks that left her online website tarnished with naked photos of her and aggressive replies. Many people stood with Jones and called for twitter to evaluate her situation; however, their intervention didn’t encourage permanent change. As of now, Jones was forced to deactivate her personal website. Trolling is seen as inconvenient rather than actual harassment due to the nature of the attacks. Trolls have no need to defend their actions because they’re already covered. Trolling is seen as jokes and not necessarily true opinion, nonetheless, the effect it has on their targets is true and significant.
Danielle Keats Citron. Hate Crimes in Cyberspace. Harvard Univ Press, 2014.
Phillips, Whitney. This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things : Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture. Cambridge, Massachusetts, The Mit Press, 2016.
Silman, Anna. “A Timeline of Leslie Jones’s Horrific Online Abuse.” The Cut, 18 Aug. 2018, www.thecut.com/2016/08/a-timeline-of-leslie-joness-horrific-online-abuse.html.