What is Trolling?

[G-Unit]

A subject which is very much in the news, but what exactly is it, and when will it lead to civil or criminal proceedings?

I found this;

Make a deliberately offensive or provocative online post with the aim of upsetting someone or eliciting an angry response from them.
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/troll

Will that get you sued for libel or charged by the police though?

You can be sued for libel if you harm someone's reputation in the estimation of right thinking members of society.
Soon to be changed to substantial harm.

You can be prosecuted if your post is in contempt of court (naming a rape victim, breaking a super injunction). Grossly offensive or menacing communications may lead to prosecution also. (Examples are joking about dead children or threatening to blow up an airport)

Posts which are in bad taste, controversial, unpopular or likely to cause offense are not necessarily criminal offenses.
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20782257
 

[Alfred R Jones]

A subject which is very much in the news, but what exactly is it, and when will it lead to civil or criminal proceedings?

I found this;

Make a deliberately offensive or provocative online post with the aim of upsetting someone or eliciting an angry response from them.
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/troll

Will that get you sued for libel or charged by the police though?

You can be sued for libel if you harm someone's reputation in the estimation of right thinking members of society.
Soon to be changed to substantial harm.

You can be prosecuted if your post is in contempt of court (naming a rape victim, breaking a super injunction). Grossly offensive or menacing communications may lead to prosecution also. (Examples are joking about dead children or threatening to blow up an airport)

Posts which are in bad taste, controversial, unpopular or likely to cause offense are not necessarily criminal offenses.
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20782257

If you make an online comment which is racist or homophobic and likely to incite hatred against a racial group or the LBGT community you will likely be charged with a crime.  Make a comment likely to incite hatred against an individual who is neither gay nor from an ethnic minority and it seems the law doesn't give a hoot.  Strange isn't? it?

[G-Unit]

If you make an online comment which is racist or homophobic and likely to incite hatred against a racial group or the LBGT community you will likely be charged with a crime.  Make a comment likely to incite hatred against an individual who is neither gay nor from an ethnic minority and it seems the law doesn't give a hoot.  Strange isn't? it?

They don't give a hoot about journalists either. It's a pity they don't set a better example. Was Carole Malone inciting hatred when writing about Brenda Leyland in the Mirror?

One of these trolls, Brenda Leyland, is a church-going 60-something divorcee who lives in a pretty village in the Home Counties. She looks like a perfectly respectable woman. But of course she isn’t.
She’s a cowardly bully who hides behind her smart front door and spews her bile in secret because she doesn’t have the guts to do it in public.

This piece of work was sending up to 50 texts a day to the McCanns. But when Sky News cameras approached her she wasn’t quite so brave.

She looked like a frightened rabbit (typical). But as she was running away (also typical) she said she thought she was entitled to do what she’d done.

Really? She thinks she’s entitled to threaten, hound and bully the innocent? Is that because her own life is so lonely, so miserable, so poisoned that she wants others to suffer the same. Or is she just a twisted, fecked up bitch who gets her kicks from hurting people.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccann-internet-trolls-devoid-4379575#ixzz3FsF2Dh8t

[Alfred R Jones]

They don't give a hoot about journalists either. It's a pity they don't set a better example. Was Carole Malone inciting hatred when writing about Brenda Leyland in the Mirror?

One of these trolls, Brenda Leyland, is a church-going 60-something divorcee who lives in a pretty village in the Home Counties. She looks like a perfectly respectable woman. But of course she isn’t.
She’s a cowardly bully who hides behind her smart front door and spews her bile in secret because she doesn’t have the guts to do it in public.

This piece of work was sending up to 50 texts a day to the McCanns. But when Sky News cameras approached her she wasn’t quite so brave.

She looked like a frightened rabbit (typical). But as she was running away (also typical) she said she thought she was entitled to do what she’d done.

Really? She thinks she’s entitled to threaten, hound and bully the innocent? Is that because her own life is so lonely, so miserable, so poisoned that she wants others to suffer the same. Or is she just a twisted, fecked up bitch who gets her kicks from hurting people.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccann-internet-trolls-devoid-4379575#ixzz3FsF2Dh8t

Are you claiming that Carole Malone is a troll?

[Mr Gray]

A subject which is very much in the news, but what exactly is it, and when will it lead to civil or criminal proceedings?

I found this;

Make a deliberately offensive or provocative online post with the aim of upsetting someone or eliciting an angry response from them.
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/troll

Will that get you sued for libel or charged by the police though?

You can be sued for libel if you harm someone's reputation in the estimation of right thinking members of society.
Soon to be changed to substantial harm.

You can be prosecuted if your post is in contempt of court (naming a rape victim, breaking a super injunction). Grossly offensive or menacing communications may lead to prosecution also. (Examples are joking about dead children or threatening to blow up an airport)

Posts which are in bad taste, controversial, unpopular or likely to cause offense are not necessarily criminal offenses.
http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20782257

So according to the dictionary the papers were correct to call Brenda a troll

[Benice]

They don't give a hoot about journalists either. It's a pity they don't set a better example. Was Carole Malone inciting hatred when writing about Brenda Leyland in the Mirror?

One of these trolls, Brenda Leyland, is a church-going 60-something divorcee who lives in a pretty village in the Home Counties. She looks like a perfectly respectable woman. But of course she isn’t.
She’s a cowardly bully who hides behind her smart front door and spews her bile in secret because she doesn’t have the guts to do it in public.

This piece of work was sending up to 50 texts a day to the McCanns. But when Sky News cameras approached her she wasn’t quite so brave.

She looked like a frightened rabbit (typical). But as she was running away (also typical) she said she thought she was entitled to do what she’d done.

Really? She thinks she’s entitled to threaten, hound and bully the innocent? Is that because her own life is so lonely, so miserable, so poisoned that she wants others to suffer the same. Or is she just a twisted, fecked up bitch who gets her kicks from hurting people.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccann-internet-trolls-devoid-4379575#ixzz3FsF2Dh8t

Some would say she is quite rightly condemning poisonous displays of hatred not inciting it.   If she was congratulating BL on a job well done that would be incitement IMO.    But she was doing the opposite.

[slartibartfast]

Some would say she is quite rightly condemning poisonous displays of hatred not inciting it.   If she was congratulating BL on a job well done that would be incitement IMO.    But she was doing the opposite.

Ah, so in the mind of the faithful, hatred is a one way street.

[stephen25000]

Ah, so in the mind of the faithful, hatred is a one way street.

You have it in a nutshell.

They only view matters in 1-dimension.

[G-Unit]

So according to the dictionary the papers were correct to call Brenda a troll

Quite possibly, but was she breaking any laws?

[Benice]

Ah, so in the mind of the faithful, hatred is a one way street.

I didn't say that or anything like it.      The poster I answered referred to an article by Carole Malone and asked whether it was an incitement to hatred.    I was answering that question.

[Mr Gray]

Quite possibly, but was she breaking any laws?

That is  a grey area........were the mccanns breaking any laws with their child care

[Brietta]

Ah, so in the mind of the faithful, hatred is a one way street.

More pearls of wisdom from the faithless denigrating the faithful could be considered impolite if not trolling.

[Mr Gray]

Quite possibly, but was she breaking any laws?

What did the police say at the inquest...if they said we had no intention of charging her with any criminal charge...that doesn't mean she hadn't broken any laws...but could be interpreted by some as such

[G-Unit]

Are you claiming that Carole Malone is a troll?

I don't know if her article appeared online, it's been deleted. Does it fit the definition? I don't know, maybe some people would relish being described that way.


Make a deliberately offensive or provocative online post with the aim of upsetting someone or eliciting an angry response from them.

[slartibartfast]

I didn't say that or anything like it.      The poster I answered referred to an article by Carole Malone and asked whether it was an incitement to hatred.    I was answering that question.

She was displaying hatred.