Internet trolls: What to do about the scourge of the Web?

Discussion in 'Politics' started by Ricter, Jul 11, 2013.

  1. Ricter

    Ricter

    Front page on CNN today, good article.

    Internet trolls: What to do about the scourge of the Web?
    By Nick Thompson, CNN
    updated 6:54 AM EDT, Thu July 11, 2013

    "London (CNN) -- Curtis Woodhouse earns a living punching people in the face, so it's fair to say he's one of the last men you'd hurl insults at if you saw him on the street.

    "But people tend to be a bit braver once they don the anonymity cloak the internet provides, and the 32 year-old English boxing champ faced a flurry of ugly abuse from trolls online after he lost his most recent bout in March.

    "One particular troll, @Jimmyob88, had been harassing the boxer in tweets and in direct messages for six months, according to Woodhouse. "He'd threatened my children saying 'be careful where you send them to school,' he threatened my wife. He'd written me saying he hoped I'd die in my next fight so I could go and see my dead dad ... it just went on and on."

    "But after the bully branded the boxer a "disgrace" and a "complete joke" and urged him to retire following his fight last month, Woodhouse finally snapped and, rather than trade blows online, he used Twitter to turn the tables on his troll.

    "Woodhouse put a "Twitter bounty" out on @Jimmyob88's head, offering anyone £1,000 for information about the user's real identity. Within minutes he had his troll's real name -- James O'Brien -- some photos of O'Brien and his home address. Woodhouse decided to make a house call." More>>