lacktheknack said:
inb4 someone knee-jerkedly defends the abuse in a misguided attempt to preemptively protect free speech.
All my sympathies go out to Ms. Williams, and I hope these psychos don't disturb her internet presence any further.
Ditto.
"But guys - seriously! Guys! I was just *trolling*!" *insert whinging sounds and the juvenile stomping of feet in a corner*
Sadly, no fairy-tale code of conduct would solve this problem. The only way to solve the issue of harassment on social media is to more or less take away the Internet's most powerful tool, which happens to be anonymity. I don't want that. Nobody wants that. Most of us use that anonymity to skip the initial awkwardness of addressing new people or near-strangers, but too many people will pretty much openly state that they think getting a rise out of people is freaking hilarious.
If we were forced to log in as ourselves or to take to it all in the same creepy vein as Russia and start providing personal info before each connection to a Wi-Fi hot spot, we'd see a lot of that abuse fade away. I don't want that, but after seeing this, I'm starting to think that letting go of certain freedoms afforded by the Internet would be a good thing.
I have no problems sticking to the straight-and-narrow. Most people would complain, but they'd keep their protests to manageable levels. I'm pretty sure the louder types who'd be up there screeching about freedom of speech more than the norm would be those who have troll-worthy actions to keep on the down-low.
And mind you, I'm talking about the sort of trolling that should really end up with a trip to a counselor or a sensitivity training expert. Not, you know, the kind of potshots that we each have a variable ability to take from friends and family alike.
