About Trolling on Social Media

[DynamoKev]

I listened to an article about this on Woman's Hour on R4 earlier.
The thing that always seems to be missing from the debate is the fact that most social media is based in the USA where the constitutional right to free speech is used to justify comments that are socially unacceptable in the UK, and the owners of these apps and sites couldn't care less about UK laws or common practises.

Nothing will change unless our government intervenes with legislation, and even then it may not.

I gave up using Facebook as amongst other things, they carried advertising that didn't comply with UK law.

Nothing will change unless our government intervenes with legislation, and even then it may not.

Why should the onus be on the government? No one is forced to have a Facebook or Twitter account. Leave the sites if you dislike the way they are run. I don't like anything about their ethos, so I've never signed up to them.

Sometimes trolling is out and out abuse but it also seems to have been taken to mean ‘any comment that I don’t agree with’ or ‘isn’t sufficiently fawning’, especially in the case of influencers.

@BalladOfBarryAndFreda

Sometimes trolling is out and out abuse but it also seems to have been taken to mean ‘any comment that I don’t agree with’ or ‘isn’t sufficiently fawning’, especially in the case of influencers.

Let's presume the OP is talking about actual trolling then, and not the bit where people don't agree with comments. It's a really simple thing to do, rather than dismiss what OP is saying.

The trolling on TikTok is horrific. It's an area I used to work in and i can't believe the way people act on that app. Obviously it's widespread across the internet but TT in particular is vicious.

Something does need to be done.

Why should the onus be on the government? No one is forced to have a Facebook or Twitter account. Leave the sites if you dislike the way they are run.

Do you really think trolls should have the power? People innocently use the internet. They should have the right to do that without abuse. 'Leave' is a ridiculous response. These trolls need to be punished for abusing people.

@TiddyAndFletch

Nothing will change unless our government intervenes with legislation, and even then it may not.

Why should the onus be on the government? No one is forced to have a Facebook or Twitter account. Leave the sites if you dislike the way they are run. I don't like anything about their ethos, so I've never signed up to them.

That's like saying why should the onus be on the government to legislate for car safety regulations, no-one is forced to drive a car, take public transport if you don't like it.

Do you really think trolls should have the power? People innocently use the internet. They should have the right to do that without abuse

People are signing up to specific social media sites and thereby accepting whatever 'rights' Facebook/Twitter/TikTok choose to let them have. In other words, they don't have any rights other than those enshrined in law - and in this case, the law might not be that of their country of residence.

That's like saying why should the onus be on the government to legislate for car safety regulations,

Erm

@TiddyAndFletch

Do you really think trolls should have the power? People innocently use the internet. They should have the right to do that without abuse

People are signing up to specific social media sites and thereby accepting whatever 'rights' Facebook/Twitter/TikTok choose to let them have. In other words, they don't have any rights other than those enshrined in law - and in this case, the law might not be that of their country of residence.

Yes; this is the point of the thread. It should be.

That's like saying why should the onus be on the government to legislate for car safety regulations, no-one is forced to drive a car, take public transport if you don't like it.

No, it's as though you were an American citizen in the UK, expecting USA driving laws to apply to your use of UK roads.

The main point of the thread was to highlight that there's not much point in us in the UK getting excited and saying "something must be done" unless the government is prepared to take on the (mostly) US tech giants.

These tech companies show no real interest in changing, so the government will either have to make them or accept nothing's going to change.

I listened to the the interview too. I did wonder if Emma was referring to MN when she spoke about women piling on other women