Website vows to name tormenters
BRITAIN
THE website blamed for the death of a teenager has offered to name the trolls who tormented her, after British Prime Minister David Cameron called on advertisers to boycott it.
The two Russian playboys behind Ask.fm, a question-and-answer forum, broke their silence and promised to hand over details of anonymous users to police, as they tried to contain the public outcry over the failure of websites to crack down on cyberbullying.
Hannah Smith, 14, of Lutterworth, Leicestershire, hanged herself last week after she was taunted on the forum and told to ‘‘drink bleach’’ and self-harm. A tribute website set up in her memory was shut down after it was bombarded by cruel and repulsive messages.
The mob mentality behind such trolling was laid bare yesterday. After news of Hannah’s death broke early this week, trolls writing on a website hosted 8000 kilometres away in the US formed a plan to target her grieving friends and relatives.
On the website 4chan, one of the web’s biggest chat forums, a user posted a link to Hannah’s Facebook tribute page and encouraged others to attack it. ‘‘Any r.i.p. hannah smith facebook pages we could make some people butthurt on?’’
The comment was followed by other postings, including: ‘‘My only question is how she found a rope thick enough to Emma-Jane Cross Beatbullying support that fat.’’
The comments were made on a socalled sub-board of 4chan that is infamous for pornographic content and orchestrated trolling. Hannah’s tribute site was closed on Thursday after its creators were unable to cope with the influx of bullying remarks.
Cameron called for a boycott of ‘‘vile’’ websites which allowed cyberbullying, saying that their operators needed to ‘‘step up to the plate and show some responsibility’’.
Cameron told Sky News: ‘‘Just because someone does something online, it doesn’t mean they’re above the law. If you incite someone to do harm, if you incite violence, that is breaking the law, whether that is online or offline.’’
Brothers Mark and Ilja Terebin, who founded the Latvian-based website, said in an open letter that the company did ‘‘not condone bullying of any kind, or any form of unacceptable use of our site’’.
They added that ‘‘in extreme circumstances such as those we’ve experienced this week’’ they would identify anonymous users via their IP addresses and ‘‘ensure this information is accessible to the appropriate legal authorities’’.
They described Hannah’s death as ‘‘a true tragedy’’ and said they had approached Leicestershire Constabulary and had been speaking to them throughout the week.
They also highlighted several features on the ask.fm website, including ‘‘a team of human moderators that works around the clock – 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days per year’’.
Emma-Jane Cross, founder of the charity Beatbullying, said: ‘‘Ask.fm has become an ecosystem of hate’’ and called for parents, schools and advertisers to boycott.
Some experts said a ban or boycott was too simplistic. Holly Seddon, of parenting and technology website Quib.ly, said: ‘‘Even if [Ask.fm] was taken down, there are many other avenues for online and offline bullying.
‘‘There is a danger that if we just fixate on one product, we are not having the conversations we should have, whether that is in government or with our kids.’’