Internet Trolls: How to Fight Back

By Linda Miller Nicholson of Salty Seattle @saltyseattle on September 6, 2011


Think of the internet like the Old West. It's vast, there is a lot to explore, and it's relatively lawless. Established societies emerge much the same way iconic Los Angeles and verdant Seattle arose from the early embers of industry and progress. We, the pioneers of social media in all its forms- have the rare opportunity to sculpt our civilizations into places worth putting down roots.

This is not an opportunity we should take lightly. Sometimes a little vigilante watchdogging is needed in order to nurture the bright future of social media. One area in need of regulation is internet trolling. An internet troll is someone who leaves incendiary comments on blog posts, twitter, or another online community. They are like the Butch Cassidy's of the modern age, but they will fade into oblivion without his glory, because we will quell them before they can cause further harm.

A few weeks ago an internet troll visited my food blog, Salty Seattle. This is what they wrote:


“Ya your fuckin bentley is in danger! How would you like me to come to Seattle and take your fuckin Bentley and shove his head down one of your evil, freaky torture devices you use on innocent chickens! Your a fuckin ugly whore who thinks she's hot. Your whoever up there died of a sudden heart attack from those fuckin peanut butter pies and you continue to make them?!!! You see no correlation between the torture on a****ls you promote, the shit ingredients you use and heart attacks and your ugly looks?! Get the fuck out of the matrix bitch and go kill your self!”

I was stunned and appalled, to say the least. I felt violated just like when my home was broken into a few years ago while my family and I were sleeping. I am no stranger to negative comments- apparently blogging about what I ate for dinner last night is terribly contentious- but this eclipsed the others. Like a sucker punch to the k**ney, it deflated my sails.



Until now, the unofficial consensus on how to handle these comments was to delete them and block the IP address from which they came, rendering the trolls mute. The more I thought about that course of action, the more I felt it would be giving them the small victory of knowing they'd rattled me. Like I let them hack at my sense of security without consequence.

I researched my options and discovered that the FBI investigates internet crimes. I became convinced that NOT reporting this crime- for that is exactly what it is, a crime- would be the same as not calling the police after a burglary.

http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx
http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx.


It turns out the US government and I see eye-to-eye on something. Within two hours of my submission, I had received an email confirmation of the particulars, as well as a phone call from my local police precinct. The FBI contacted the Seattle Police Department, who sent a detective to my house.

The detective documented the details and captured screen shots of the comment. I passed on the offending IP address as well as the physical address associated with that IP address. This isn't difficult information to obtain, nor is it i*****l. I knew precisely where the troll lived within minutes of reading the comment; on a quiet residential street in a house with a backyard pool in sunny Florida. And now the police and the FBI know. They are investigating the matter on two separate counts; one is called internet crimes against c***dren, since the comment contains threatening language toward my three-year-old c***d, Bentley Danger. The other is crimes against businesses, because I run my blog as a business. I am told the offender should expect legal repercussions. The detective assigned to my case has been available and forthcoming with details. I cannot share additional specifics, but suffice to stress that they are taking it very seriously.

I recount this story because I want you to know that there are options if you ever find yourself in a similar situation. Would that mama's manners lessons were enough to deter deviant individuals from not saying anything at all when they can't say something nice, but in some instances those lessons were forgotten. Or never taught. That's where we come in. We need to report internet crimes the same way we'd report crimes offline. It will make the future of social media brighter.

Some have suggested that I receive comments like these because I reveal aspects of my personal life. My blog is not about my c***d, it's about my dinner. That being said, my dinner is informed by my life, and maybe 10% of that life finds its way online. I don't see that as over-sharing, and I don't feel that the occasional photo of me, my friends or my c***d should endanger us.

Not sharing those images or thoughts feels like living in fear and conceding defeat to internet trolls. I lock my doors and set my alarm at night, but I don't sleep in a suit of armor because of potential dangers. That strikes me as paranoid. I don't live that way in real life, so why would I choose to live like that online?

My goal in sharing this story is to illustrate the fact that the fine line between virtual reality and physical reality is rapidly disappearing. No one should be able to hide behind the deceitful comfort of a computer screen. The same rules of accountability that apply outside the internet should apply there
as well.

Yes, freaks exist and freak incidents occur, but we have recourse. Short skirts don't cause ****, r****ts do. Putting select details of our lives online doesn't warrant the actions of trolls; they will persist with or without us. But we have the power to make them responsible for their actions. The more we report these incidents, the more our various governmental agencies will recognize that there is a need to impose penalties. Five or ten years from now, the world of social media will be a better place, and it will be because of pioneers like us.