MARK FLEMING
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About me
  • 1976
  • My bands
    • 4 Minute Warning
    • Desperation A.M.
    • Little Big Dig
    • Axidents
    • Noniconic
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Blog
  • About me
  • 1976
  • My bands
    • 4 Minute Warning
    • Desperation A.M.
    • Little Big Dig
    • Axidents
    • Noniconic
  • Contact

Web trolls - lurking just beyond your firewall

21/4/2012

 
Mock up of Hitler on facebook
Fraping
Have you ever been fraped? This means when someone accesses your facebook account and posts random comments which get attributed to you, or maybe tweaks your profile picture. Usually it's innocuous enough. If you left your account in logged-on mode, a flatmate or partner could just be having a laugh. There have been more serious incidents when hackers have violated facebook pages or set up bogus accounts purely to be malicous. This has become known as trolling.

Trolling
A web troll is not your mate having a laugh at your expense.  Trolls are about as funny as Year Zero was to the people of Cambodia. Reading magistrates recently jailed one of them, 25-year-old Sean Duffy, for 18 months. His despicable crimes included creating a joke YouTube video entitled 'Tasha the Tank Engine'. This was his twisted way of poking 'fun' at 15-year-old Natasha MacBryde, a bullying victim, who had been found dead on a Worcestershire railway line. Duffy posted pictures of a 16-year-old car crash victim, Hayley
Bates, on facebook. He also left sick messages on an online memorial about 14 year-old Lauren Drew, who died after an epileptic seizure.

There are many words in the English language to describe individuals of such cretinous depth.  Duffy is a social inadequate of cataclysmic proportions. A soulless cunt would be more succinct. The fact is these so-called trolls are yet another glimpse into the darker forces unleashed by the Pandora's Box of the world wide web. Thanks to the anonymity offered by Internet Service Providers, fuckwits, tossers and downright morons of every description are party to the same technology enjoyed by normal, functional human beings. When a warped imagination gains access to a browser, the potential for psychological damage can be huge.

Online race (and other) hate
Alas, Duffy's sidesplitting humour is but one extreme example of what gets published on message boards and forums right across the virtual world every day. Anytime MSN News features events in the Middle East, you can be sure the comments stream will soon be overflowing with rancid Islamophobia, couched in exactly the sort of vile, racist, dehumanising language that was once directed at Jews in 1930s Nazi propoganda.

BBC journalist Jeremy Vine was discussing the topic of internet trolls on his Radio 2 talk show. He spoke of a friend who blogs regularly but who has become so disgusted by the inane bile his articles regularly provoke he has stopped reading 'below the line'.

Living in the west we enjoy, in varying degrees, free speech. A crackdown on the internet is the first sympton of totalitarianism.  You can't blog about social issues in North Korea or Syria. At least trolls, like 
Neo-Nazis, in unleashing their fuckwitted diatribes, simply expose themselves to the utter ridicule of the vast majority of rational web surfers. But that's scant relief to the families of the aforementioned teenagers.
    Mark Fleming, mental health writer
    MARK FLEMING
    ​EDINBURGH | SCOTLAND


    ​Categories

    All
    404 Ink - Space
    4 Minute Warning + First Priority
    9/11
    Aladdin Sane At 50
    Alan Brazil: Stigmatising Mental Health
    Alan Brazil With Another Jurassic Roar?
    Albums Of 2021
    Albums Of 2022
    Albums Of 2023
    Albums Of 2024
    A Literary Phoenix
    Amanda Prowse
    American Primeval / Me V. Mormons
    Amy Winehouse
    Andrew Mitchell
    Anna B Savage: A Common Turn
    Ari Up
    Armistice
    Arts Festival
    Balconing
    Barack Obama
    Berlin Wall
    Best Books 2016
    Bipolar Edinburgh: My Talk
    Blackshirts
    Bobby Smith 'One Love Two Colours'
    Book Censorship
    Brian McDermott On His Professional Football Career And Mental Health
    Britains Got Talent
    Broken Social Scene: Hug Of Thunder
    Can: Flow Motion
    Caroline Flack
    Changing Room/SOS August '23
    Changing Room; Transforming Lives
    Changing Room: Walk And Talk
    Chavs And Filthy Rich
    Child Cage Fight
    Christmas Truce 1914
    Citizens Advice Scotland
    City Boys Deride NHS
    Claire Connor: Art In Scots
    Clinton STD Scandal
    Creative Health Symposium 2023
    Creative Writing To Promote Mental Health
    Dave Greenfield
    David Walliams
    Denise Johnson RIP
    Depression Awareness
    Desperation A.M.
    Dick Smith RIP
    Disability
    DOK Exhibitions
    Domestic Violence
    Edinburgh Festival
    Edinburgh Science Festival 2020
    Edinburgh's Most Popular Sectarian Extremist
    Edinburgh's Post-punk Class Of 1979 Still Achieving Top Marks
    Faisal Shahzad
    Falklands War
    Fortitude
    Frankie Abbott
    Gaelic Suppression
    Game Of Thrones
    Garry O'Connor: Highs/lows
    Gary Alikivi: Northeast Culture
    Gary Speed
    Gerry Anderson
    Gettysburg
    Gore Vidal
    Graham Crowden
    Ground Zero
    Hacking Scandal
    Heids Up: The Authors Give A Talk To Edinburgh University Students
    Helga Etsby
    Hillsborough Justice
    Hiroshima 75th
    Homelessness
    Horrorshow: Horror Screenwriters And Psychotic Baddies
    Hypomania In The Royal Ed
    Ian Colquhoun: How Surviving An Appalling Attack Inspired Him To Become An Author
    Ian Curtis: 40 Years On
    Ibiza
    Ibrox Disaster
    Idlewild - 25th Anniversary
    Inpatient
    Internet Petitions
    Ireland's Rocky Journey
    It's A Kind Of A Funny Story
    Ivor Tiefenbrun
    Jake Bugg
    Jenny Saville
    Jeremy Clarkson On PQ17
    Jeremy Clarkson: Top Bore
    Joe Strummer
    John Hume RIP
    John Peel
    John Terry
    Keira Knightley
    Keith Levene RIP
    Kelly Lee Owens: Inner Song
    Kelvin MacKenzie: Wants Police Apology
    Killing Joke: Pssychosis!
    Kirkcaldy High School: Writer In Residence
    Kristallnacht
    Lemmy
    Llyr George
    Lovely Eggs
    Lying About Mental Health
    Malvinas V Falklands
    Manic Street Preachers And The Twilight Sad: Corn Exchange
    Manic Street Preachers: Ultra Vivid Lament
    Mark E Smith RIP
    Mental Health And Fat-shaming
    Mental Health And The Cost Of Living Crisis
    Mental Health Awareness Week 2022
    Mental Health During COVID-19
    Mental Health Prejudice
    Mental Health - Still Stigmatised In 2024
    Mental Health Walks: Ed Sci Fest
    Mental Health Walks: Fisherrow At Night + Unloved
    Mental Health Walks: Porty Shore + Public Service Broadcasting
    Mental Health Walks: Porty Sunrise + Manic Street Preachers
    Mental Health Walks: Porty To The Fort + Broken Social Scene
    Mental Health Walks: Seafield Plant + Can
    Mental Health Walks: Seafield Sunrise + Kelly Lee Owens
    Mental Health Walks: St Margaret's Loch
    Mental Health Walks: Storm Arwen + Anna B Savage
    Michael Portillo: Death Of A School Friend
    Middle East Peace Process
    Mosley
    Musselburgh Mudflats
    Mysterines: Love's Not Enough
    National Rifle Association
    Neo Fascism
    News International
    Newtown Killings
    Nicolas Winding Refn
    Noel Edmunds
    Organ Donation
    OTD 1981
    Ozark: Bipolar Disorder
    Paddy Ashdown Delusions
    Paul Research: Skate The Royal Mile
    Paul Weller: On Sunset
    Pete Shelley RIP
    Picnics And Paedophiles
    PiL On OGWT 5 Feb 1980
    Poignant Memories
    Poly Styrene
    Portobello Book Festival 2022
    Portobello Book Festival 2024: Preview Of Heids Up
    Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
    Predator Drones
    Primal Scream
    Private Ellison
    PTSD
    Public Service Broadcasting: Bright Magic
    Public Service Broadcasting: Lit Up
    Punishment Of Luxury
    Punk's Impact 35 Years On
    Quadrophenia And The 1979 Mod Revival
    Racism In Football
    Revenant
    Richard Ashcroft
    Richey Edwards
    Rick Buckler RIP. Potent
    Rick Perry
    Robbie Hance
    Royal Ed
    Rupert Murdoch
    Samaritans
    Sarrazin
    Saughton Prison Visit
    Scars Reunion
    Scottish Tories
    Self Harm And Ronaldo
    Sepp Blatter
    Sex And Violence
    Shane Meadows
    Shaw Trust
    She Drew The Gun
    Shoegaze: 30 Years Of Loud Dream Pop
    Simon Cowell
    Simon Weston
    Slaughter And The Dogs
    Soldiers Suffering Breakdowns
    Speaker's Collective Blog: Tip Of The Iceberg
    Spellow Library
    SS Mendi Disaster
    Stranglers Live Review
    Suicide
    Suicide And Ignorance
    Surgeon's Hall And The Edinburgh Seven
    Susan Boyle
    Swearing: Dead Man's Shoes
    Syria - Crossing The Red Line
    Teleman: Brilliant Sanity
    Terry Jones
    The Astoria
    The Chase
    The Clash Debut
    The Damned
    The Responder: Freeman's Tour-de-force
    The Salt Path: Triumph Over Despair
    The Slits
    The Sun - One-finger Salute To Lord Leveson
    The Wolf Warriors And Werewolves
    This Is England
    This Is England 86 Review
    Time To Change Mental Health Stigma
    Tombstoning
    Tom Chapman - Lion's Barber
    Tony Scott
    Tories
    Tragedy House And 90s Leith
    Troy Davis
    Typewronger Bookshop: Open Mic
    Unloved: Heartbreak
    Urban Noir Photo Exhibition
    U.S. Slavery Ends 1865
    US War Hystria
    Vic And Bob's Shooting Stars
    Voyager
    Wags
    Ward 1A
    Wayne Bridge
    Web Trolls
    'When Two Sevens Clash' By Andrew Watson
    Wolf Alice: Space And Time
    World Alzheimer's Day
    World Book Day 2025 - Heids Up
    World Suicide Prevention Day 2020
    X Factor
    X Ray Spex

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.