Trolls don’t just tweet

Trolling was once known as a simple fishing technique yet today the term is entwined in a tangled net of abuse, challenges to freedom of speech and questions of morality. In a contemporary context, a ‘troll’ is someone who posts vitriolic messages and images in various online environments with the intention of provoking or mocking others.

Public relations practitioners have an interest in this issue as protecting and enhancing the reputation of others is a major part of the job. However, the courts and law enforcement are increasingly becoming involved.

In June this year, an important legal decision by the High Court forced the social media site, Facebook to surrender the IP addresses and details of a woman’s online abusers. Earlier in March, troll Liam Stacey was jailed for fifty six days for inciting racial hatred on Twitter stemming from his comments about football player Patrice Muamba who was fighting for his life in hospital. With the maximum sentence for inciting racial hatred carrying seven years – the same amount of time you can serve for carrying a loaded gun in a public place – it demonstrates how serious shooting your mouth off online can be, and the need to be mindful of the explosive effects of words.

Extreme cases have even occurred where trolling has been used to target and cyber bully the vulnerable. In some instances, the combination of bullying and trolling has forced a few young people to take their own lives. Celebrities are not exempt from these attacks; pop starlet Cher Lloyd recently explained her constant fear of online abusers on the BBC programme Panorama. Presenter Richard Bacon also led his own documentary The Anti-Social Network looking into his personal experiences with the morbid world of trolling.

Very recently author and journalist Grace Dent found herself on the receiving end of a troll attack on Twitter. The situation sparked great media attention when it turned out that the troll in question worked for a PR company Dent claimed to be in business with. Needless to say, Dent did not take kindly to being disparaged online by a complete stranger and threatened to have her troller sacked. Grace’s response can’t really be faulted given the cowardly nature of the attack by a not so anonymous troller. In fact her actions have been met with much praise in the media and by fellow celebrities.

And so, the anti- troll bandwagon trundles along picking-up celebs keen to exert their right not to be criticised, yet many need to look at their own behaviour. Grace Dent is not impartial to making judgmental commentary about individuals and celebrities she doesn’t know personally; in fact she recently described columnist Samantha Brick as ‘creepy’ in her column for the Independent. Dent would likely argue ‘fair comment’ whilst a person less thick skinned than Samantha Brick may well claim ‘trolling’.

Being horrible about other people, including members of an audience, makes up much of the material of stand up comedians. Anyone who’s been to a comedy club can retell a story about the complete annihilation of an unfortunate audience member done ‘for a laugh.’ Nobody- least of all the comedian- ever takes a moment to consider how their mocking has affected that individual. Leigh Francis- famous for his 2002 programme ‘Bo Selecta’ and more recently appearance as the character ‘Keith Lemmon’- based much of his TV show around a caricature of the celebrity singer Craig David. At first the show was taken in good humour by Craig David, but after two years and five series understandably, it got a bit much with Craig detailing how inside it was absolutely ‘pissing’ him off and hurtful beyond belief. When questioned about Craig David, Francis shirks all responsibility claiming the sketch was a joke and insinuating Craig was being too sensitive.

With this in mind it is quite difficult to empathise with celebrity comedians such as Isobel Fay who recently wrote a sketch song called “Thank You Hater” based on her trolling experiences. Although incredibly entertaining, well written, well produced and with an important message, comedians need to understand that if they’re going to take the higher ground they must ensure they’re on solid ground.

Everyone communicating in public whether on TV, radio, news papers or online must understand that words have power and can hurt. Humour, criticism and straight up abuse lie very close to the same fulcrum.

As with many tales containing monsters, goblins and trolls this one ends with the monster being persecuted- or in this case prosecuted- and rightly so. Their vicious ways plague society. But trolling isn’t confined to the internet; vitriolic abuse of others- effectively a form of bullying- is practiced everyday by public figures as well as seemingly anonymous internet trolls.

If you can’t say anything nice, you’re just an ugly, warty troll with no friends. And you need to get back under the bridge you came from.