From the legal side ...
SnipThe media lawyer said he had seen “a significant upswing” in online bullying cases.
But criminal prosecution, said Stephens, should be reserved for the most extreme cases.
“It is only a very small minority who are fixated, who take it to the extreme — people who are borderline certifiable,” he argued.
Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has instructed lawyers that messages sent via social media could be a criminal offence if they contain “credible threats of violence” or target an individual in a way that “may constitute harassment or stalking”.
“Grossly offensive, indecent, obscene or false” messages could also amount to a crime if a “public interest” case can be made.
https://mybroadband.co.za/news/technology/111710-the-scourge-of-internet-trolls.htmlIn my opinion all of what has been said above is applicable to the
organised gang trolling of the McCanns with Brenda Leyland perhaps falling into the nuisance category ... or maybe not when one considers her physical proximity to them and the allegation made that she often visited their home village as a result of her interest in them.
Snip"When Madeleine first went missing she used to go over to her home village all the time. She used to go to the local pub and the shops telling everyone what she thought about the family. It seemed very odd behaviour."
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/2629697/exposed-mccann-troll-was-mired-in-loneliness/Brenda Leyland was a cog in the wheel of a far larger organised controlled and controlling group which researchers have associated with the trolling of the parents of a missing child.
In my opinion the repetition and the choice of victims seen as vulnerable (and few can be more vulnerable than families of the missing) is typical bullying behaviour particularly when it is gang related.
I don't think it is an issue that can be properly addressed by those individuals with normal thought processes such as unaffiliated researchers trying for understanding (maybe Dr Synott or another of his ilk could be informed by threads such as this one?)
SnipWhat drove the outpouring of bile about the McCanns by Leyland, a church-going mother-of-two in a sleepy English village, remains a mystery.
However, new research confirms what many victims already know, that online trolls can be a sinister bunch.
A study by Canadian researchers cited in Psychology Today linked trolling to sadism.
“Both trolls and sadists feel sadistic glee at the distress of others. Sadists just want to have fun… and the Internet is their playground!” it said.
https://mybroadband.co.za/news/technology/111710-the-scourge-of-internet-trolls.html