Keyboard ‘cowards’ on notice
THESE MALICIOUS LIES CAN SPREAD QUICKER THAN CORONAVIRUS THROUGH AN ABATTOIR AND, JUST LIKE THE VIRUS, CAN BE HARD TO TRACK DOWN AND STAMP OUT
ANONYMOUS trolls, you’re on notice.
Keep up your trolling and you’ll be outed and feel the full force of the law.
If you’re like me, you’ve probably despaired about the prevalence and seeming untouchability of online trolls.
Some call them keyboard warriors. But they’re more like keyboard cowards.
They usually hide behind avatars with fake usernames made up of numbers or vulgarity. While you would like to think they’re all living in their mum’s basement, I suspect the anonymity afforded by their avatars turns usually normal people into nasty pieces of work.
But despair no more. The tide (finally) seems to be turning.
In recent years, trolls have hunted down celebrities or sports stars to say vicious and vile things or to spread nasty lies or racist taunts. But now these trolling hunters are being hunted. And with great success, it would seem.
Richmond premiership player Dylan Grimes took to social media on Sunday morning to complain about the “death threats and suicide suggestions” he had received in the wake of Richmond’s win over Essendon in the Darwin edition of the AFL’s Dreamtime game. Unfortunately, this is not unusual. In fact, only earlier this month another Essendon fan sent GWS star Callum Ward death threats after Ward’s Giants knocked off Essendon.
But in a wonderful development, it seems police may have tracked down Grimes’ troll. A 39-year-old Frankston man has been charged with a raft of charges including using a carriage service to stalk and making threats to commit a sexual offence.
These offences are serious. They carry a possible lengthy jail term. And this is exactly the sort of thing the law should be used for.
Now a court will decide whether he is guilty, but the fact the police have charged someone would send a chill down the spine of any troll – if they had a spine.
Death threats aren’t the only thing trolls do. Anthony Seibold – the former coach of the Brisbane Broncos – knows all too well another weapon in the arsenal of these lowlife trolls.
Spreading lies via social media – often built off an element of truth to try to make the lies seem real is the other disgusting missile. That’s what happened to Seibold as a series of nasty untruths about him did the rounds earlier this month.
Usually these lies are spread by circulating a screenshot of a text message or email (again in an attempt to try and give authenticity to it).
These malicious lies can spread quicker than coronavirus through an abattoir and, just like the virus, can be hard to track down and stamp out.
If there are lies published in the mainstream media, a person can target the media organisation. But you can hardly sue every person who forwards on a “rumour” – although in theory that’s possible.
However, Seibold might have the solution. He has engaged European cybercrime experts to pinpoint who started the lies about him.
Hey trolls – are you scared yet? You should be. The digital footprint or trail left by these trolls is what will see them come unstuck.
Waiting for them are some pretty serious ramifications – and not just financial ones. Of course they could be sued for defamation by Anthony Seibold. Based on what I know, that would seem a pretty open and shut case. So unless they have a financial death wish, they’re probably going to have to get the cheque book out. But in Queensland, the Criminal Code still includes the offence of criminal defamation. So convictions and in theory jail could await these serial trolls.
Looking overseas, this trend is starting to gather momentum.
Only two weeks ago an international sports data company announced it had developed a tool to uncover the identities of serial trolls. The company trialled its new tool at tennis events in Germany and the US earlier in the year. It researched 70 abusive messages sent to pro players.
The company unmasked the culprits behind the messages – 21 people – many seemingly normal, whose lives would be thrown upside down if they were outed for their shameful posts.
Well, to all those types of people, and to all the other would be trolls, I say: you’ve been warned. You will be found out and brought before the courts.
We need a few trolls to be sacrificed in our criminal courts to send the message to stop people joining the trolling ranks.
Justin Quill is a media lawyer