Difference between revisions of "RIP Trolling"
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Revision as of 01:38, 18 December 2011
RIP trolling is a specific troll behavior concerned with internet commenters posting sarcastic and inflammatory remarks on the memorial pages of deceased persons. Though not limited to it, most RIP trolling takes place on the Facebook social network, as many memorials are open to the public and broadly acccessible. Univerisity of Oregon Ph.D. student Whitney Phillips contends that most RIP trolling is not directed at the family of the deceased, but rather "grief tourists": users who have no real–life connection to the victim.[1]
Contents
In the News
With their high level of shock-value and offense, a few cases of RIP trolling have unsurprisingly involved police and media coverage.
In March 2011, Bradley Paul Hampson, a 29-year-old Australian, was sentenced to three years of prison after posting offensive messages and photographs on the Facebook RIP tribute pages of a 12-year-old stabbing victim and a 9-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered.[2] Hampson posted photographs of one victim with "a penis drawn near their mouth" and highly offensive messages including "Woot I'm Dead" and "Had It Coming". Hampson was later freed after 220 days in jail when an appellate judge ruled that the previous sentencing was excessive.[3]
In a court case from September 2011, Sean Duffy, was jailed for vandalizing tribute pages of many young victims of crimes and suicides. Additionally, Duffy created his own YouTube videos and mock tribute pages to further torture the victims' friends and families. After being linked to harassing and creating several of these pages and videos, Duffy was finally punished for his trolling offenses. He plead guilty to two counts of sending vindictive messages relating to one victim, and asked for his other offenses to be considered in the same case. In the end, Duffy was sentenced to 18 weeks in jail in addition to a 5 year antisocial behavior order to prohibit Duffy from utilizing any forms of social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube. It was reported that Duffy suffered from Asperger's Syndrome, but this was never confirmed. Police commented on the case saying they would continue to track down trolls like Duffy, demonstrating a clear precedent for trolling on the Internet.[4]
Motivation
Univerisity of Oregon Ph.D. student Whitney Phillips went undercover to interview and understand the RIP trolling community. A troll going by the username "Paulie Socash" participated in a series of interviews with Phillips revealing some of the motivation and intention of RIP trolling.
The reality of this is simple: the vast majority of those who get large memorial pages on Facebook are cute little kids (Jamie Bulger) or pretty young ladies (Jenni-Lyn Watson, Chelsea King) or useful pawns for a cause (Tyler Clementi and other gay suicides). These memorial pages are decidedly not a place for friends and family to grieve (family and friends should be grieving together in private like normal people). In reality, these are havens for “grief tourists”: people who substitute online emotions and declarations of solidarity for real emotional relationships and friendship. Most memorial pages are not set up by friends or family; they are created by people who are too involved with the stories they read online or see on the news — people who derive some sense of self-importance and worth from being seen to care by strangers. — Paulie Socash, troll[5]
See also
References
- ↑ Whitney Phillips- LOLing at tragedy: Facebook trolls, memorial pages and resistance to grief online
- ↑ http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/facebook-troll-bradley-paul-hampson-jailed-for-posting-child-porn-on-tribute-pages-for-dead-children/story-e6freoof-1226028117673
- ↑ http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/facebook-troll-bradley-paul-hampson-to-be-freed-immediately-after-winning-appeal/story-e6frea8c-1226068660234
- ↑ http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/13/internet-troll-jailed-mocking-teenagers
- ↑ http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2011/09/interview-with-a-troll/
