Snitches Trolls & Sanctions

[silverfaun]

Although I participate in social media on various sites I find the online snitches  to be  far more virulent re reporting  certain posters.

Also the 3rd party boycotts of businesses by the Greens, Crikey, Get up and unions is far more serious than first thought when they started to ruin businesses.

We are also shut down for not showing enough sympathy for people who lose their lives doing things that lead to that very fact & playing the race and redneck card is a particular favourite.

The stifling of opinions by calling to arms their adherents to remove people is a 21st century thing, more people who don't have the education to make an educated comment have access to social media.

The article below should be an eye opener to some but I'm not holding out any hope that they will pull back from this type of activity:

What sort of person posts tasteless things online and what trolling may reveal about society at large.

There is another question that has gone unasked: what type of person grasses on people for saying things they find offensive about people they don’t even know?

The online snitch is not the antidote to the online troll; he is the flipside, indeed, online snitches pursue their targets with the same unflinching obsession as online trolls.

Online snitches repost offending comments and encourage others to share, submit and express their outrage, some even campaign to make the troll ‘famous’ for being offensive.

Like the trolls, snitches express the same egotism and desire for attention and validation, only they want to be validated for their pious outrage rather than their ability to comment &  push buttons.

This has a profound negative impact, not least for those people directly affected by trolling. Indeed, if online snitches actually cared about those targeted by online trolling, they should ignore such trolling. Instead, the actions of such people increase the exposure of offensive online posts.

By engaging with trolls and, in many cases, reporting them to the police, snitches turn small, often unnoticed incidents of trolling into full-blown media stories, making it much more likely that those affected by trolling will become aware of the offensive posts.

However, a more worrisome development is the impact the online snitches are having on how speech is policed online.

The online troll and the online snitch are not wholly different creatures: they come from the same swamp. The difference is that trolls don’t actually matter; their attention-seeking outbursts have no meaning outside of the online world.

Trolls

There are a whole bunch of theories about dealing with trolls. The most well-known being that you shouldn't feed the trolls.

• Be vicious to trolls.  It's not like you're depriving anybody of food or oxygen.
• Be capricious.  If you're consistent, they'll know where the line is; if they know where the line is, they'll skate to the edge of it.
• Be indifferent to trollish suffering. Being called a facist (not a typo: most trolls can’t spell) who's suppressing free speech is not a cause for concern; its semantically equivalent to “You're doing your job.”

• Be obnoxious. Trolls do it because it amuses them to do it.  Being made fun of is not amusing, particularly when you can enforce a ban.  Remember: they need your site more than your site needs them.

It all boils down to this: every so often you have to dispatch a troll.

The snitch, however, has a far greater and more dangerous impact.

In their sanctioning of intervention into speech, online snitches are facilitating the erosion of freedom of speech – and cheering it all the way.

Rob Harries is a writer and researcher based in London.

[izabsmiling]

what is the best way to deal with them ?...From my experience I found taking a real holiday or voluntary break helps heaps 

[lakeland27]

crikey is owned by news Ltd .

[the_hawk*]

Like the trolls, snitches express the same egotism and desire for attention and validation, only they want to be validated for their pious outrage rather than their ability to comment &  push buttons.

I don't see a lot of difference between the two, but would say the snitches are worse in that they have a tendency to be stalkers and obsessed, just an opinion based on how I have seen some behave online

[izabsmiling]

Online snitches – the real plague of the internet

21 JANUARY 2014

The moral panic over online trolls grinds on…

Last week, a man in Scotland was probed by police for making dark jokes about terminally ill footballer Fernando Ricksen. Then, in a more high-profile case, two men were arrested on Monday for making ‘offensive comments’ on Twitter about Mikaeel Kular, the three-year-old Scottish child who was found dead in Fife last Friday. Each of these so-called trolls was arrested after their posts were reported to the police by other social-media users.

These cases have led to renewed speculation about what sort of person posts such tasteless things online and what the recent flurry of trolling may reveal about society at large. But there is another question that has gone unasked: what type of person grasses on people for saying things they find offensive about people they don’t even know?

The online snitch is not the antidote to the online troll; he is the flipside of the same coin. Indeed, online snitches pursue their targets with the same unflinching obsession as online trolls. Online snitches repost offending comments and encourage others to share, submit and express their outrage, some even campaigning to make the troll ‘famous’ for being offensive. Like the trolls, snitches express the same egotism and desire for attention and validation, only they want to be validated for their pious outrage rather than their ability to push buttons. 

This has a negative impact, not least for those people directly affected by trolling. Indeed, if online snitches actually cared about those targeted by online trolling, they should ignore such trolling. Instead, the actions of such people increase the exposure of offensive online posts. By engaging with trolls and, in many cases, reporting them to the police, snitches turn small, often unnoticed incidents of trolling into full-blown media stories, making it much more likely that those affected by trolling – such as the family of Mikaeel Kular – will become aware of the offensive posts.

However, a more worrisome development is the impact the online snitches are having on how speech is policed online. The judge presiding over the trial of Matthew Wood, who was jailed for three months for making ‘abhorrent’ jokes about the then missing five-year-old girl April Jones on Facebook, referred to the public outrage caused by Wood’s actions as justification for his sentence. Thus, by broadcasting their sanctimonious outrage, a minority of people online are creating a precedent by which all of our online speech will now be policed.

The online troll and the online snitch are not wholly different creatures: they come from the same internet swamp. The difference is that trolls don’t actually matter, their attention-seeking outbursts have no meaning outside of the online world. The snitch, however, has a far greater and more dangerous impact. In their sanctioning of state intervention into speech, online snitches are facilitating the erosion of freedom of speech – and cheering it all the way.

Rob Harries 

http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/online_snitches_the_real_plague_of_the_internet/14546#....

I'd like to know more about the Author .

I know that there are such things as sock puppets who get paid for every post which remains on discussion boards (in general..not specifying that it happens here).

For example :the kind of posts that some fanatic climate change deniers may make.

Paid Sock puppets and those who employ them would be very happy to spread the message above .

also there are those who don't like being held account for what they do (it's the childish 'it's someone elses fault' kind of attitude) when they do wrong by others ....and again those snitches who do that with intent ...the kind who might even publicly boast about silencing a poster .Snitches is a negative,all in one word ...a word that can protect and enable the wrong thing/people imo

[silverfaun]

Why should genuine posters have to take a "holiday" for their opinions?  even if that opinion is not to the liking of some.

Why is it that the  posters who post offensive pictures, call anything they dont like appalling names are able to do so without care.

Is it because they are posting to the same groupthink as their own and therefore safe to act in this way? This is something I feel that should be addressed, not reporting the ubiquitious interpersonl dispute excuse.

There are many opinions I don't agree with, I participate because debate is good on all levels.

[izabsmiling]

Silverfaun, I see a very strong political message in that .One that would support things such as lessening of discrimination laws ,hate speech etc etc.Is that what our current PM wants ?

our PM who displays the childish 'it's someone elses fault' kind of attitude

[boris1gary]

The snitch, however, has a far greater and more dangerous impact.

In their sanctioning of intervention into speech, online snitches are facilitating the erosion of freedom of speech – and cheering it all the way.

seriously, give us a break - i think the above is whats known as codswallop.

[izabsmiling]

I don't know ...I can say that it did gripe me as a one id poster when I took enforced holidays ...while what seemed to be multi id posters were free to post what they want and had enough id's to keep posting if another was given a holiday (if that ever really happened at all) .All those id's had reporting power ....and power to silence .They also had free passes most of the time as it wasn't those who they had a go at who were the most likely to report posts ...just my opinion.

[silverfaun]

Addressing the original article & thoughts on that is not political so therefore I respectfully ask that you don't make it political.

Also hunting down the identies of  authors and make assertions (sock puppet) is also not helpful in this debate about the damage snitches, trolls & stalkers perpetrate on others.

Knowing many on here would hate to be stalked or trolled I presume a good debate on this topic to expose this type of behaviour would be welcome.