Handling Online Terrorism (’Cyberbullying’)
For those that may not know, I help manage online communities at my job. To manage an online community, I’m that person that objectively reviews a series of harassment reports and take action from those. Sharing my experience as an Internet expert and current community manager, I’ll share tips on handling “Cyberbullies.”
I should take a moment to define a few terms. I classify “online terrorism” as any activity that is deemed as harassment, defacement or grafiti on a Web property such as an online profile, forum, blog, or other user-created content. While it’s a semi-unofficial word, I believe it fits the meaning and the context.
An online terrorist is known as a Troll. They simply wish to disrupt an online community from their on-topic, direct discussion. A troll is no different than you or I, they simply exist in someone’s alternate online personality. They are usually created from the community they disrupt. Their mentality, can be summarized as their way or no way. Along with trolls, are cyberbullies who simply harass you online. You’d be surprised; I’ve encountered some people who do behave well online under one alias, and have a troll under a stealthy alias.
Now that you know what online terrorism is, and who the trolls are; its now time to minimize their disruption.
How to Handle Online Terrorism, Trolling and Cyberbullying:
- Don’t respond to it. While it sounds simple and lame, if you respond you only add fuel to their fire. Essentially, what good is a message if no one acknowledges? Use this passive response to send the message, that you don’t wish to bother them.
- Report a troll’s content to the provider. The only way a provider can step in and take action is if their users let them know. Learn the abuse and reporting policies.
- (For a community owner) Provide a list of rules, standards or guidelines you want your community to live by. While some policies may require legal assistance; some things can still be prohibited such as harassment, spamming, multiple account abuse, etc. Explain the consequences as well, as to inform the users about how you’re protecting their environment
- If you feel personally threatened, contact law enforcement. While a majority of online trolls are just trying to jar a response; ignorance shouldn’t risk your own danger. Reporting it to law enforcement will document the situation if escalates, you’ll be making a reasonable effort. That said, don’t waste their time with mild vulgarity … as that will only hinder your ability to adequately report crimes.
- Log and document everything. While this responsibility rests in the provider; it should be suggests that if someone is continually harassing you, you should retain copies of the content.
- Don’t pay any attention to trolls. A rule I’ve learned recently regarding priorities — don’t let your largest task be at the mercy of your smallest distraction. Same rule goes for trolls, don’t blog about them and don’t respond; focus on what your primary content niche thrives on.
- Be aware of the content you post. If you talk about your family, children, school, or post your personal information on a message board; all of that information will be used against you. Talking in generalities is perfectly acceptable, and inviting people to an online chat, rather than a phone call is more acceptable.
- Don’t get personal. Discussing hot topics such as politics, religion, or pop culture; some people have many different views. Take a moment to embrace them and then respond to the topic, rather than the author.
While this list isn’t complete; it however does serve as a primer for anyone who interacts (or manages) an online community. I appreciate getting feedback from anyone who has experience in this too, so feel free to share your tips in the comments regarding online terrorism.
[tags]internet, web, online, community, harassment, cyberbullying, terrorism, help, tips[/tags]
Joe, the use of the word “terrorism” to describe internet trolling is frankly beneath the normally excellent caliber of your writing. Regardless of whether or not “online terrorism” is a commonly-accepted euphemistic buzzword for “trolling” these days; it should never be used in that context, especially on an otherwise constructive blog such as this one. It’s factually incorrect, since it’s not the “unlawful use of violence esp. against the state or the public as a politically motivated means of attack or coercion,” since in your article it describes personal harassment rather than harassment of the state; and although it may be political in nature it is not designed to influence national politics nor is it politically motivated. Moreover, it’s morally questionable (at the least) to equivocate actual terrorism with online harassment. A bomb vest exploding in an Israeli bus station is terrorism. British soldiers being cut down my masked men with submachine guns in Northern Ireland is terrorism. Harassment or threats typed by sophomoric Internet users is emphatically not terrorism. This isn’t to say that someone might feel “terrorized” by such speech, however the usage of that term in this context is comparable to “Billy was ‘terrorized’ by bullies at his school via liberal application of wet willies and wedgies.”
Like many users, I turn to the Internet to escape the sensationalism and hyperbole of TV and print media (of whom I would expect to refer to trolling as “terrorism”); and was disappointed to see the term used here. Use of this term at best needlessly dilutes the meaning of the word, and at worst cheapens the horrific loss of life inflicted by terrorists.
Junkyard Willie,
While I do tend to agree that “terrorism,” in today’s usage of it is certainly cliché — I apologize for that. That said, the root meaning of Terrorism is terror. Merriam-Webster defines this as:
In this context, I am implying cyberbullying, or online harassment incites fear within their targets. Your argument is whether the term, “terrorism,” shouldn’t be aggregated into into the context of the genocide of others — certainly it isn’t.
Perhaps, I might have used the phrase “online terrorism,” to serve as a metaphor or a piece of of link bait to encourage others to click on the article and engage themselves further. Nevertheless, I do agree that drowning the tubes with more clichés and hyperboles only placates from the true essential value from any blog entry I post on.
Aside from politics and terrorism — what’s new in your world?
Oh I’m doing pretty good. Black Jack W. (the baby) turned 1 a couple weeks ago and is already a force of destruction- he’s coming along nicely. In an effort to get exercise and get my circadian rhythm back on track I’ve been doing a lot of outdoor stuff such as hiking in the mountains, climbing, swimming and long-range rifle shooting and so I now have a ridiculous farmer’s tan. In fact I’m literally a “redneck” these days but it’s all good. Plenty of crazy exploits from working in HR at my new job, but those definitely aren’t stories for a public forum
This one makes sence “One’s first step in wisdom is to kuesstion everything - and one’s last is to come to terms with everything.”