On Monday 29th October Shashank Tripathi, a New York hedge fund analyst who goes by the Twitter name ‘@ComfortablySmug’, was forced to make a public apology for spreading false information about the devastation caused by hurricane Sandy. Tripathi fuelled the panic that was gripping New York as his tweets on the popular social media site Twitter were feverishly retweeted. Even the media began to report some of his fabricated claims. This goes to show how powerful social media sights have become and as a result of this, how alarmingly dangerous they can be.
The latest celebrity to fall victim to the “Internet trolls” was the singer Adele. Just after the birth of her first child in October the trolls took to their keyboards and wrote malicious messages to Adele on Twitter. As a consequence of these unnecessary and sadistic messages Adele has reportedly quit Twitter. Sadly, Adele is one of the many people who have been hurt and attacked by these Internet trolls. Amanda Todd, a Canadian teenager, committed suicide after years of cyber bullying over Facebook. The police are currently investigating her death and searching for the identities of the people who drove her to take her own life.
In current times freedom of speech is a natural human right, however, with the rise of social media, some individuals are abusing this right and inflicting unwarranted attacks on innocent people. There is a line between using the Internet to voice one’s opinions, whatever they may be, and cyber bullying. What is becoming clear is that this line is increasingly being crossed. It is much easier to hurl abuse at somebody from behind the protection and mask of a computer screen than it is in person and this sense of protected identity allows the ‘trolls’ to write without any worries of being caught.
That said, however, recently there has been a huge break through in revealing these Internet Trolls and making them accountable for their actions. An American journalist exposed one of the biggest Internet trolls as Michael Brutsch who posted sexualized images of underage girls and domestic violence on the Internet. In an age where the Internet allows people to create alter egos this is a significant development and hopefully will act as a warning to fellow trolls. Their actions are unacceptable and they should not be allowed to hide behind technology.
On the other hand, there is another side to the argument about privacy on the Internet. No one will argue that it is wrong that trolls such as Brutsch, who are a danger to society, are revealed, however, how does one determine who is and who is not entitled to their own privacy? If somebody joins an online forum under a pseudonym to seek help on a personal matter should they be allowed to remain anonymous? Or if somebody posts radical political views that may seem controversial to others under a fake name, should they too be stripped of their privacy?
The Internet is an ever-expanding way in which people can voice their opinions and exercise their freedom of speech. Furthermore, they should be within their rights to protect their identity. It is when people abuse this privacy and use freedom of speech to abuse others that things become complex and something must be done to prevent them from causing harm.
Photo Credits: billboard.com, gawker.com, gingerrrama.wordpress.com,