To feel sorry for this woman?

[Mammanat222]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2781377/BREAKING-NEWS-Internet-troll-targeted-McCanns-dead-hotel-room-days-fleeing-home.html

OK so her hobby of internet trolling (and her subjects!!) was a bit dodgy BUT I cannot help to feel quite sorry for how she was treated??

AIBU

They were not 'opinions' !!

Nancy66 Your the person in the other thread that thinks its OK that Carole Malone suggested she was a bitch. I have absolutely no time for you or your opinions. You should be utterly ashamed of yourself.

Can someone link to the other thread?

Here here plinkyplonks the hypocrisy on this is amazing.

I said I didn't see an issue with Carol Malone's column. I don't. It was written before her death.

Trolls are vile horrid bullies, they do not voice 'opinions' they harass and intimidate and can destroy lives. Trolls target families who have lost loved ones, including children, spreading their vile abuse and hurting those families further. They also target people via Twitter and Facebook, which is what they woman did, with their bile. Yes I feel very sorry for her family, and her son, but face the consequences of your actions. She was an intelligent lady, she should have known this.

They were not opinions constructed in an intelligent constructive way, they were vile abuse.

IF that is true, then that is up the POLICE to deal with. She was tried by media, was never arrested and was not convicted of ANY offences. So just because you didn't think what she did was appropriate, doesn't give Sky News the right do what they did. And certainly doesn't make right the number of threads and posters who have passionately argued that they are not sad she has died and made some frankly disgusting comments about a dead woman.

She did not contact the McCanns ever. They confirmed that.

If speaking about that family in the way she did is a crime, I think the police will be overwhelmed dealing with the numbers of people that have done so.

Yes I agree the Police should deal with it, but these are my opinions on trolls. I have read of childrens' memorial pages or those set up for loved ones on FB being targeted by these vile trolls. Wasen't the Police involved with this woman.

Good point Knee

Trolls do harass, yes they post to provoke a reaction but in the same vein its bullying and harassment.

Wasen't the Police involved with this woman

She apparently hadn't been contacted by them or charged with anything.

She was instead one person among a long list of people, who had a whole bunch of things attributed to her name and face by martin brunt/skynews.

Why isn't trolling harrassment? Her intentions were to hurt these people.

She didn't give the police the chance to contact her and give her side of events. How is that anyone's fault but her own?

No-one has no idea what her real intentions were.

ArsenicFaceCream - The other thread is here. No idea why we have two threads for this - just encourages people to bounce between them when they can't make excuses for their unsavory views:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2202052-Brenda-Leyland-has-been-found-dead?

Trolling is harassment, it does not just happen once, it can be sustained. Richard Bacon was talking about his internet troll, it certainly sounded like he was harassed, not harrassed in person, but over the internet. Yes it can happen. His troll kept saying all sorts of horrible inflamatory things about him on Twitter, Police were involved and caught his troll.

Aeroflotgirl - The important part about trolling is that it is about getting a reaction. The person is saying something outrageous that they may or may not mean to provoke a reaction out of someone. Repeatedly putting unsavory views on the internet can be defamatory (civil matter) and if specific threats are made the police can get involved.

But lets be clear here - the police were not involved, she was not tried or charged of any crime, she was cherry picked from a large pool of people who have views about the McCann's that you may or not agree with. But she was targeted and publicly made an example of.

Now if the Sky News had referred the matter on to the police and she was arrested and convicted of this crime - I'd kind of understand Sky News covering the facts. But the media identifying online users, throwing them into the public spotlight and identifying who they are and where they live is a VERY step into wrong direct - and in my view breach of everyone's right to privacy.

BustiKate You explained it much better than I did. Agreed - using the media's very wide interpretation of the word troll, most users of AIBU would be considered online trolls. Now would you be a happy bunny if Sky News turned up on your doorstep to interview you, identify you and harass you because of your opinions on AIBU?

Busti the quote from one of her posts just shown on the BBC was abuse aimed at the McCanns not just her own theory of what had happened. That has to be trolling? And all carried out anonymously.