#online trolling

[belliesandburps]

How about Idia?

Idia loved Friday game nights. No classes for the weekend, so he was free to play his MMO's well into the sun rising. He was also free to indulge on all manner of junkfood. Idia was munching away on a massive bag of gummy worms, chewing voraciously and loudly slurping and chewing into the mic while other players angrily told him to mute his mic. He never did.

And as he played, he grabbed an entire 2L bottle of soda, unscrewed the cap and greedily guzzled its contents down with his overpriced headphone mic still firmly planted on his head. His mic picked up every wet gulp from his throat, his heavy breathing through his nostrils and the boorish gasp for breath he gave when he finally set the bottle down and caught his breath.

But no sound was more boorish than the big, booming belch Idia let rip RIGHT into his microphone. All that carbonation in his belly came roaring out of him in an eructation louder than Idia almost ever was when not behind his tablet. When it ended, he groaned heavily into the microphone while several other players shouted at Idia behind the mic for being a disgusting pig, others called him out for being a massive troll because there's no way he didn't do that on purpose.

Idia smacked his lips and insisted that he couldn't help it. That sour candy and soda made his tummy so unbelievably bubbly, taking his headphones off and lifting up his shirt to show off his pale, bare belly as he pressed his mic right up against it so the other players would be subjected to the gaseous noises of Idia's stomach burbling and churning from all the junkfood and soda churning away inside of him. Then he pulled the mic right up to his both, sucked in a deep breath of air, and unleashed a HUGE belch right into the mic as loud and as long as he could, basking in both the relief, and the unholy mic cracking of other players SCREAMING at him in outrage at his disgusting behavior. It was music to that fiery haired online trolls' ears.

[indizombie]

Many believe India is becoming unsafe for journalists. Sixty-seven journalists were arrested and nearly 200 physically attacked in 2020, according to a study by Geeta Seshu for the Free Speech Collective. A journalist, who was on his way to cover the gang rape of a girl in Uttar Pradesh state, has been in jail for five months. Journalists - especially women critical of the government - face fierce online trolling and threats. Delhi-based freelance journalist Neha Dixit says she has been "stalked, openly threatened with rape and murder, viciously trolled", and an attempt made to break into her apartment. This week, the police arrested a law student for allegedly sending death and rape threats to Rohini Singh, another freelance journalist.

Soutik Biswas, ‘Why journalists in India are under attack’, BBC

[kylo-is-sad]

“Disagreement is okay but be nice to each other!” You’re always so cool about this stuff. Hope all this twitter junk blows over soon. Hugs from a fellow Reylo shipper💜🤗 (no need to really respond to this, just thought I’d send you a hug.) keep being awesome!

Thanks I’m doing okay :). I wanted to use your ask as an opportunity to write down what I’ve experienced and seen in terms of online harassment. I realize I have a bigger platform than most so I did want to speak out about this.

Context and Anti trolling:

I made a joke that some people found offensive, which if they don’t like I can respect that. What I don’t respect is the outright harassment I’ve endured and seen done to others. It’s shitty that a bunch of Anti-Reylo trolls took my tweets, packaged it as an attack on Oscar Isaac’s race (it wasn’t), ran with it, and started a mass harassment campaign. But even shittier that a lot of Reylos and my ex-followers have unfollowed, blocked, or even worse harassed me and have probably been just as bad in terms if not worse than Antis.

Lies:

90% of the things I see tweeted about me are either taken out of context or just straight up lies. I see them claiming I’m an Anti or hate Reylo. I see one Reylo claiming I steal original tweets/memes and is now “stealing content back” by just cropping my username out and tweeting my stuff out (this is really rude). I see multiple people claiming to know my gender and race and then race/gender baiting. I see people taking my DMs when I did reach out to explain the controversial tweets, and then using it to further harass me by tweeting them out as evidence of me “being conniving” and refusing to let me have a say in anything. People have claimed I’ve pretended to be Latino in the past (the evidence being I once used the words “por que”). I see people claiming I’ve blocked them for no reason when in reality, they’ve been harassing me non-stop. I see claims that my first suspension was for either very salicious reasons or that I’m a racist (I actually got incorrectly suspended for “spam”, which Twitter undid on review). 

Harassing me and others:

Not only do people lie, people are engaging in all sorts of vicious attacks. I see people clearly using my username for their own agenda (shipping wars, virtue signaling, etc). People try to report my posts as racist (FYI - Twitter also does not consider parody accounts mocking fictional characters racism per their official message to me so good try). I see Reylos and Antis wishing me Coronavirus. I still see repeated attempts to hack my Instagram and Twitter. I see people going across all my social media to dig up dirt.

It’s even shittier because I see these same people (literally I can recognize the same people) actively doing it to others too. I see them tearing apart a Reylo who said he said he liked The Rise of Skywalker and Rey Palpatine concept. I see someone trying to attack others for liking the character of Luke Skywalker more than Kylo Ren. I see POCs that defended me get harassed and called things such as b*aner, bootlicker, horsefucker. I see non-POCs stirring trouble by continuing to silence POCs speaking up and making threads that encourage POCs to fight over my tweets. I see the same people also doxxing others in their feuds. I have followers who told me they had to unfollow me because of the harassment they were getting from their mutuals. It’s sad to see rabid Anti behavior in the Reylo Twitter community but the reality is this behavior exists everywhere and it’s pretty toxic.

Conclusion: 

I’m not going to name drop anyone (I learned my lesson about that, while my feelings were valid I should have 100% hidden said person’s twitter handle) because I’m not interested in escalating the harassment. This problem isn’t just an Anti problem nor a Reylo problem and it goes beyond shipping. I’m definitely doing a lot better now, a lot of people reached out to me with their support (POCs and not) and I’m grateful. Some of my followers publicly defended me in spite of the harassment and I’m also grateful for that. I’m just trying to move on from it and have fun with my account (my Instagram’s actually really picking up 6.2k followers now, up from 1.5k three months ago!!!). I still love what I do, I’m still a big Reylo, and I’m just blocking a lot more people now.

All this is to say, whether you disagree with someone on Star Wars, their sense of humor, what you choose to ship, it’s not an excuse to go out and be shitty to someone. Thanks! 

[strangegames]

dream SUBMISSION blog

I mean, look at some of the top responses on her Tweet talking about it. Even people who are trying to defend her end up getting trolled, at

[ajoeblogs]

A New Species Called Trolls

The Internet is known to be vast, fast and informative. But it’s also a dark place full of dangers... like ruthless online trolls – never heard of them? Unlike the trolls in the fairy tales, online trolls neither hide nor live in caves or deep down in a forest. No, online trolls lurk in public, in the suburbs and some in the city centres of the great capital cities around the world. Precisely where and when they smell the best opportunities to attract the public's attention, they strike. Not to mention, online trolls are far less harmless and cause a lot of damage. Their repertoire ranges from verbal abuse and slander to serious threats (Boyd 2014, pp. 131-132).

Online trolls are easily one of the scariest inhabitants of the Internet and thrive on negativity and cyberbullying. They love to stir up and spread hatred (Rosewarne 2016, p. 94). But who are "online trolls" – and what should you do if you come into contact with such a shameless species?

According to McCosker (2014, pp. 206-209), online trolls are people who purposely provoke others on the Internet, typically through inflammatory, insulting or provocative comments. Trolls have one goal: to upset others and cause emotional, preferably provocative results (Rosewarne 2016, pp. 105-111). To achieve this goal, trolls will grumble wildly and often on an off-topic post and ride personal attacks, post simple hate speech and even post death threats (Rosewarne 2016, pp. 90-97)

But it’s important to differentiate between some trolls. According to Dowling (2014), some online trolls can be passionate about a topic or cause and simply intolerant to differing opinions – for example, some die-hard unsocial individual or young kids who make fun of something and others. Usually, however, online trolls are generally intelligent people who leave no gap behind the comma. For the sake of simplicity, this group is often referred to as online trolls. In fact, the Internet is full of people who want to share their opinions.

But unlike the angry users who share negative but sincere beliefs, trolls probably don’t believe a word of what they’re writing. They choose their words precisely to upset others (Arendholz 2013, pp. 121-124). In short, trolls are online bullies. They’re found on virtually any Internet platform that allows comments or interaction. One study found that a disproportionately large percentage of online verbal abuse occurs on Twitter. This may be due to the rather anonymous nature of the platform compared to other social networks, such as Facebook. Apart from that, trolls can lurk everywhere on the Internet.

What you should avoid in your response to trolls?

First, don’t fall into the online troll trap and feed the trolls. This is very important. However, it’s also easier said than done, especially if a troll posts personal attacks. Dowling (2014) sums it up in his article: "If they want to be funny, your willingness to swallow the bait is their punchline. If you do not bait, there is no joke at all."

    Reference:

Arendholz, J 2013, Title:(In)Appropriate Online Behaviour: A Pragmatic Analysis of Message Board Relations, John Benjamins Publishing, EBSCOhost-Ebook, viewed 17 May 2018, <http://bit.ly/2J8ehpN>.

Boyd, D 2014, 'Bullying: Is the Media Amplifying Meanness and Cruelty?', Yale University Press, New Haven, pp. 128-52.

McCosker, A 2014, Trolling as provocation: YouTube's agonistics publics, Convergence, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 201-217.

Rosewarne, L 2016, Cyberbullies, Cyberactivists, Cyberpredators: Film, TV, and Internet Stereotypes, ABC-CLIO, ProQuest-Ebook, viewed 17 May 2018, <http://bit.ly/2JjyI6x>.

  Image Reference:

‘Seven Tips for Dealing with Online Trolls’ [image], in SPINSUCKS 2013., viewed 17 May 2018, <http://bit.ly/2JlsJy0>.

[starnews24live]

उम्र और बोटोक्स की अफवाहों को लेकर लगातार ट्रोलिंग का सामना करने पर रुबिना दिलैक: 'मेरी प्रतिक्रियाएं बहुत तीव्र थीं'

अभिनेता रुबिना दिलैक ने अपनी शक्ल और उम्र को लेकर लगातार ट्रोलिंग का शिकार होने के बारे में खुलकर बात की है। अभिनेता ने खुलासा किया कि सोशल मीडिया उपयोगकर्ता अक्सर उनके बोटोक्स और फेसलिफ्ट जैसी कॉस्मेटिक प्रक्रियाओं से गुजरने के बारे में अटकलें लगाते हैं, यह स्वीकार करते हुए कि एक ऐसा चरण था जब कठोर टिप्पणियां उन्हें भावनात्मक रूप से गहराई से प्रभावित करती थीं। रुबिना दिलैक ने जून 2018 में अभिनव…

उम्र और बोटोक्स की अफवाहों को लेकर लगातार ट्रोलिंग का सामना करने पर रुबिना दिलैक: 'मेरी प्रतिक्रियाएं बहुत तीव्र थीं'

[balu88r-blog]

Pizza Delivery Boy : ಶಾಲೆಗೆ 'ರೋಲ್ ಮಾಡೆಲ್' ಆಗಿದ್ದವನು ಇಂದು ಪಿಜ್ಜಾ ಡೆಲಿವರಿ ಬಾಯ್, ವಿಡಿಯೊ ಮಾಡಿ ವ್ಯಂಗ್ಯವಾಡಿದ ಯುವತಿ, ನೆಟ್ಟಿಗರ ತರಾಟೆ..!

ಬದುಕು ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ಒಂದೇ ತಟ್ಟೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಸುಖವನ್ನು ಬಡಿಸುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಶಾಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಫಸ್ಟ್ ರ್ಯಾಂಕ್ ಬಂದವನು ಇಂದು ಬೀದಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕೆಲಸ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿರಬಹುದು, ಸಾಧಾರಣ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿಯಾಗಿದ್ದವನು ಉನ್ನತ ಸ್ಥಾನದಲ್ಲಿರಬಹುದು. ಆದರೆ, ಯಶಸ್ಸಿನ ಏಣಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಮೇಲೆ ಕುಳಿತ ಮಾತ್ರಕ್ಕೆ ಕೆಳಗಿರುವವರನ್ನು ಕೀಳಾಗಿ ನೋಡುವುದು ಎಷ್ಟು ಸರಿ? ಶಾಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ಸ್ಫೂರ್ತಿಯಾಗಿದ್ದ ಹಳೆಯ ಸ್ನೇಹಿತ ಪಿಜ್ಜಾ ಡೆಲಿವರಿ (Pizza Delivery Boy) ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿರುವುದನ್ನು ಕಂಡು ಮೆಚ್ಚುವ ಬದಲು, ಆತನ ಪರಿಸ್ಥಿತಿಯನ್ನು…

Pizza Delivery Boy : ಶಾಲೆಗೆ 'ರೋಲ್ ಮಾಡೆಲ್' ಆಗಿದ್ದವನು ಇಂದು ಪಿಜ್ಜಾ ಡೆಲಿವರಿ ಬಾಯ್, ವಿಡಿಯೊ ಮಾಡಿ ವ್ಯಂಗ್ಯವಾಡಿದ ಯುವತಿ, ನೆಟ್ಟಿಗರ ತರಾಟೆ..!

[thelovecentral]

The Psychological Effects of Online Trolling on Africans Living Abroad by Onyekachukwu Blessing

The digital age has revolutionized communication, fostering connections and amplifying voices across the globe. However, this newfound online space has also become a breeding ground for negativity, with trolling emerging as a pervasive issue.  For Africans living abroad, this online harassment can have a particularly damaging impact, adding another layer of complexity to their experiences. This article explores the psychological effects of online trolling on Africans living in foreign countries. We'll discuss the motivations behind trolling, its impact on mental health, and coping mechanisms for those targeted. Additionally, we'll discuss potential solutions to create a more inclusive and respectful online environment. Understanding Online Trolling Trolls are individuals who post inflammatory, derogatory, or offensive content online with the intent to provoke a reaction from others. Their targets can be individuals, groups, or entire communities. Online trolling thrives on anonymity and the ease of spreading negativity. For Africans living abroad, online trolling can manifest in various forms: Racist and Xenophobic Abuse: Derogatory comments targeting race, ethnicity, or nationality. Negative Stereotypes: Perpetuating harmful stereotypes about African cultures or immigrants. Unsolicited Cultural Policing: Trolls criticize Africans abroad for adapting to new cultures. Gatekeeping African Identity: Questioning the "authenticity" of their African identity due to their residence abroad. Project insecurities: Some trolls mask their own feelings of inadequacy by putting down others. Don't respond to trolls. Image credit: freepik The Emotional Toll of Online Trolling While trolls operate from behind a veil of anonymity, the effects of their actions are very real. Studies have shown that online harassment can have a significant impact on the health of the victim, leading to symptoms like: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): In severe cases, repeated trolling can trigger symptoms of PTSD, characterized by flashbacks, nightmares, and hypervigilance. Anxiety and Depression: Persistent negativity and harassment can lead to anxiety, feelings of worthlessness, and even depression. Loss of Self-Esteem: Repeated attacks on identity and heritage can erode self-confidence and a sense of belonging. Social Isolation: Fear of further harassment might lead to withdrawal from online communities and a sense of isolation. Difficulty Trusting Online Spaces: Trolling can create a sense of distrust and apprehension towards online interaction altogether. Cultural Identity Crisis: For some, online attacks can trigger a crisis of cultural identity, especially if they question their connection to their African heritage. Increased Stress Levels: The constant barrage of negativity can increase stress levels, impacting physical and emotional well-being. Sleep Disturbances: Anxiety and emotional distress can lead to difficulty sleeping, further impacting mental health. It's important to remember that these effects are not limited to the online world. They can spill over into offline interactions and negatively impact personal and professional lives. Coping Mechanisms and Building Resilience If you're an African living abroad and have been targeted by online trolls, here are some steps you can take to protect yourself and build resilience: Limit Engagement: Don't respond to trolls. Their goal is to provoke a reaction. The best defense is often to disengage, block the troll, and report them to the platform.  Build a Support System: Surround yourself with positive and supportive people, both online and offline. Talking to trusted friends, family, or a therapist can help you process your emotions. Focus on the Positive: Don't let negativity define your online experience. Seek out positive and uplifting content from other Africans abroad. Celebrate Your Heritage: Embrace your African identity and connect with your roots.

This can be a source of strength and pride in the face of online attacks. Practice Self-Care: Prioritize your mental and emotional well-being. Engage in activities you enjoy, practice relaxation techniques, and don't be afraid to seek professional help if needed. Don't let negativity define your online experience. Image credit: freepik Moving Forward: A Call for Change Combating online trolling requires a multifaceted approach. Social media platforms need to take stronger measures to identify and remove offensive content, with stricter enforcement of clearly defined community guidelines. Additionally, implementing frequent educational campaigns targeted toward young people can raise awareness about trolling and its harmful effects. Furthermore, fostering a culture of online civility and promoting understanding of diverse cultures and backgrounds can create a more inclusive online environment. Ultimately, amplifying the positive stories and contributions of Africans living abroad can counter negative stereotypes and foster a more welcoming online space. Conclusion: Our Shared Humanity The internet has the potential to be a powerful tool for connection and understanding. However, the issue of online trolling can create a hostile environment, particularly for Africans living abroad.  By acknowledging the psychological impact of trolling, building resilience, and working towards a more inclusive online space, we can create a digital world that celebrates diversity and fosters respect for all. Society often defines beauty through narrow parameters  Read this article to explore the link between body positivity and mental well-being, and how cultivating self-acceptance can lead to a happier and more fulfilling life.