Troll Proofing Your Blog
The United States has a number of protective laws in place to prevent verbal and written harassment. If it takes place in the work setting, then the issues are referred to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Going after those with disabilities means you cross the American Disabilities Act and subject to penalties.
When a person attacks another person by spreading racially laden speech or print, then they may find themselves on the wrong side of an FBI investigation if they cross the line too far. Organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League and others also will step up to enforce basic societal norms of human conduct. Racial tirades have no place in this day and age. We are all part of the human race with just a few minor differences.
Hate speech and racism is a controversial topic when it comes to how to regulate it versus First Amendment rights. There will always be trolls on the Internet that are miserable people willing to put down anyone. But this is not tolerated in the real world anymore than it is online. There is a difference though.
In the real world, crossing the legal protections may land a company or group in an investigation of abusing the civil rights of another. When one person makes false statements in order to ruin the reputation of someone verbally, they can be sued for defamation of character or slander. When it is done in a written method such as email, letter or sky writing, then it is called libel.
But what measure is there for answering hate speech, racism and defamation online especially in venues such as MySpace, Facebook or a blog? Currently, this area is lacking but it is starting to form a proper response.
For those who cannot behave and function properly in society, they are often placed in prison to remove them from harming the society. For the Internet, this can be accomplished by responsible web owners and ISP’s. All Internet service providers have Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policies. These should be enforced in combination with the efforts of the owners of other domains and tracking software that is readily added.
If you are a blog owner, software, such as Sitemeter and other options, can provide the IP address and extensive details of those who visit your site and their actions. This combined with a moderated comments only method and the removal of any ‘open’ feature (such as a ShoutBox) also provides a degree of security for your readers as well as valuable data on the potential offender (emails sent have traceable IP’s for comparison). Once an offender can be identified by their IP address and ‘all nine pins’ then the domain owner should submit the offender to their ISP for termination of service and banning due to a violation of AUP or TOS.
Some ISP’s do take this into account and act on it but not all. If legislation is what is needed to streamline this process of removing those who are unfit or too immature to function in the Internet society, then so be it. In any case, we strongly suggest everyone stands up for their right to be treated civilly both online and offline.
What is the name of this growing problem? The name is cyberbullying and it is not restricted to an age group. There are persons of all ages that have never grown up.
We will be posting further updates in this field as we come across them or as they are reported to us.
Thank you,
Anah
