Criado-Perez’s posts on Week Woman
“Don’t feed the trolls.”
We’ve all heard this advice as the best solution to quiet annoying, insulting, harassing and otherwise unwanted activity online. Many of us have probably said it at one time or another.
But it’s time we all not just rethink it, but actually screw it up into a ball and throw it in the bin. Here’s why:
Over the weekend I read 2 bits of news. One was that Caroline Criado-Perez had quit Twitter. Criado-Perez, as you probably know, is the woman who fronted the campaign to get women on banknotes and, after that, highlighted the abuse and threats she received as a result of the campaign. That prompted more abuse. All of it was of the most shocking kind.
You may think you’ve heard it all. You may even think of yourself unshockable. The details of the threats against Criado-Perez will prove you wrong. Read the details in Criado-Perez’s speech on cyber-harassment at Women’s Aid.
What’s even more shocking is the slow reaction she encountered from official quarters in dealing with the threats both legally and administratively. And finally there were those who lectured her for stirring up trouble, for not just taking the insults and threats. Any girl or woman who has walked down a street while a group of boys or men hurl out insults or provocations after her knows how effective this strategy is. After all, any decent woman doesn’t go out there and fight back to abusers. She sits down and shuts up. Which is exactly what many people told her.
Why was she courting the media, putting herself in the spotlight? After all – the thinking goes – anybody who does that gets what they deserve. In her guide How to be a perfect good girl online, she offers some tips on how to avoid being criticised, including “Don’t have a foreign-name…But at the same time, don’t be white and middle-class”.
We have internalized the message that the polite, proper, “right” thing to do is the look the other way, ignore awful things people are saying, pretend it’s not happening.
It was these people that Criado-Perez was responding to.
“Don’t feed the trolls” is supposed to be part of a philosophy of online behaviour – that the Internet is a free world and people should be allowed to say whatever they want. And if you don’t like it, turn off the Facebook feed, log off Twitter and go elsewhere. But this only heightens the problems. Users who engage in constructive debate, supportive conversations, and intellectual exchanges are rendered powerless, mute, while the shouters and bullies take over.
It also sounds a lot like what authorities used to say about offline stalking and harassment. We can’t do anything. Our hands our tied. Just ignore it.
We’ve gotten more sophisticated in our understanding of what a campaign of harassment looks like. It’s time our society’s understanding of online stalking and harassment and its treatment of the perpetrators caught up with what’s really happening.
And in the meantime, we – as part of the online community – need to quit ceding the wifi waves to people who want to spew venom and hatred. We need to let them know they can’t get away with it. This isn’t about the behaviour of police or haters. This is down to us.
For people who are the focus of others’ venom and hatred, we need to reach out with words of support and solidarity, rather than buying into another version of “Sit down, shut up and take it.”
About Jennifer Howze
Jennifer Howze is the Creative Director and co-founder of BritMums. She blogs about family travel at Jenography.net, tweets at @JHowze and Instagrams at @JHowze. Previously, she wrote the Alpha Mummy blog at The Times and as a journalist has contributed to The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Wall Street Journal, Travel & Leisure, Budget Travel, CNN.com, Allure, SELF and Premiere, among others. She won The Maggie Award from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America for a health article in Seventeen magazine.
Mum in a Hurry
Friday 20th of September 2013
I have just read Caroline's article detailing the threats and abuse she received. Its absolutely disgusting that people think its okay to behave like that. I've been trolled before and I ended up deleting the post in question as I was scared of receiving more abuse but in hindsight this was the wrong thing to do. I am very sad that Caroline has decided to leave twitter. I have to say I might have considered it myself if I had been in her position - I don't know how I'd cope with constant threats and abuse like that. But she shouldn't feel like she has to leave Twitter, stop blogging, basically be silenced! I hope she is just taking a break, gathering some strength and comes back. I for one will be behind her when she does!
Claire toplis
Thursday 19th of September 2013
Having being bullied at work I've just come through it I fought all the way
Mum in a Hurry
Friday 20th of September 2013
Claire, been in the same situation as you. Glad you're through it. Its horrible!
Liz Jarvis
Saturday 14th of September 2013
Also, just to add, when some well-known tweeters announced they were boycotting twitter in protest, I was one of those determined to do the exact opposite, with the #fightingback hashtag; I firmly believe that the best way to fight back against bullies and haters is not to disappear, but to show them that you're strong, and will not be silenced. And there's a lot of safety in numbers ;)
Liz Jarvis
Saturday 14th of September 2013
I think the above comments are absolutely right - trolling is a very specific internet nuisance; trolls leave anonymous comments on blogs, forums and facebook pages (for example, in memoriam pages) designed to stir up trouble, cause controversy, simply because they get off on it (perhaps this is why so many trolls tend to be single men with empty lives).
But actual abuse on the internet - and threats - is a different matter altogether. As some of you know, I was on the receiving end of this when the members of a now defunct (ie, they've all been arrested and jailed) 'underground' movement, at the time associated with a larger, very well known one, encouraged their members to tweet abuse at me in response to something I'd tweeted to them; you could argue that I invited it, but I was naive, and I was alarmed by how quickly it happened - in less than an hour they were tweeting they had published my home address and phone number (I'm not sure this is true). I blogged about it on the blog http://www.themumblog.com/i-know-what-its-like-to-be-trolled-by-anonymous-strangers.html, because even though it was quite frightening - the speed, the viciousness of the tweets, and there were over a 1000 - I was determined that it wouldn't make me leave twitter. But it was frightening.
But what happened with Caroline Criado-Perez is on a different level entirely, it is of course much more serious. I think Twitter has to take a lot of responsibility here - they are a hugely profitable organisation, they're about to be floated on the stock market, there is no reason they shouldn't invest in moderators to ensure this kind of abuse is dealt with as quickly as possible and reported to the police where appropriate.
One thing I'm struggling with at the moment though is 'unwanted' attention on twitter, from men, where they're tweeting me increasingly 'dodgy' tweets, even though I don't follow them, or ever respond to them. They tweet over-familiar tweets, as though they know me, which makes me very, very uncomfortable. This week alone there has been one very persistent one (I've now blocked him) and one who actually tracked me to my work email, demanding to know why I've blocked him. I have absolutely no idea who he is, but I'm finding it a little creepy. I'm not really sure what to do about it, other than block. Has anyone else experienced this, and if so, what are your thoughts on how to deal with it?
By the way - Michelle makes an interesting point about the law being slow to act. When I worked at Wapping, I received anonymous, threatening, racist hate mail on two separate occasions, from well-known fascist organisations. The police said there was nothing they could do, because it was anonymous (ie, they didn't know exactly who had sent it) and they had nothing to go on (!). I hope now they would take this kind of thing more seriously, but I doubt it.
Michelle | The American Resident
Friday 13th of September 2013
Frankly, I am stunned that the law is so slow to act on this. If these things were being said on the street no one would stand for it. Similarly, when one frustrated guy made a joke on Twitter (admittedly poor taste) about a bomb at Nottingham airport he was arrested within half an hour. Ummm?
liveotherwise is correct, these aren't trolls, these are criminals and they are committing hate crimes.