Prosecution of Tweeters

I am quite sure Bags is right. What slightly worries me is that we do not know the health of those we are talking to and both anxiety and oversensitivity can be increased by ill health.

And also, in reflecting on Bag's posts, some people hang on to hurts, and worry away at them, and don't let go and move on. Again, I'm only reflecting so please don't let anyone imagine this is about them.

I suppose in the 'olden days' people sent poison pen letters (or was that only in books?) and sometimes people would write graffiti intended to insult people. The difference now is that it's so much easier and something can be half round the world in seconds. Some of the language seems much worse, maybe because people think they're anonymous.

Sites like Gransnet are not a problem.Everyone chooses the name they wish to post by and whatever personal details they give is of their own choosing.
Some of us are a bit opinionated but that comes from being older and having plenty of experience in life.
Occasionally,I do wince at the odd personnel jibe to a poster.

With the newspaper forums,people get annoyed if their comment was not included,and there are the inevitable trolls.
People choose their name and are anonymous.
If it upsets ,just sign off and don,t go back in.
Slights are taken far too personally.

It is very different when the poster is identified,such as a politician who may use Twitter and the like to give out information.If they attract the wrong people and are threatened then it should be punishable.

Best to keep things as private as possible on Facebook etc.
I,m afraid when you enter the world of social media you will find a few'cookies'.

Another thing that could perhaps be thought about in a similar way is worrying. Some people worry a lot about things that other people worry far less about. I think it's to do with personality but, not being a psychologist, I wouldn't like to hazard further than that. And, besides, even if nobody else finds it a useful way to think about stuff, I do find it useful so don't accuse me of insensitivity or nastiness when all I'm trying to do is get my head round an idea.

I do know tegan in real life a little bit, daph. We had a very pleasant walk back to Waverley Station one afternoon. I don't think my comment about sensitivity thresholds is any more insensitive than it would be if I were talking about physical pain thresholds. People do have different levels of tolerance for physical and mental hurts. It's just a plain fact, imo, not a judgment. I also think it possible that thinking about it like that could be helpful. That's why I mentioned it.

If it isn't a helpful way of looking at things, so be it, but I didn't say it to be mean (as I pointed out in the post).

Sorry about the typos. My screen keeps freezing and I've got a sticky keyboard (and fat fingers )

@thatbags

If you knew Tegan in real life and thought that, I'm sure you'd be more sensitive about what you said to her.

But what about if you keep getting emails? Do you keep having to change your email address? Many people have Twitter and Facebook. Should they have to deny themselves a 'normal' pastime.

There is no legal definition of bullying - real life or online. Thankfully, sites like GN set their own standards and it doesn't get out of control. Unfortunately, even sites like the Guardian have had to switch of comments at times when they cann't be moderated.

What you feel is what you feel; period.

Yes, I had picked that up previously from your posts, tegan. I think where our outlooks may differ is at what stage we think our feelings are the responsibility of someone else. I suspect your threshold for deciding when you feel someone else should take your feelings into consideration is lower than mine. No offence. That's just my impression from a number of posts.

Are the trolls to be excused because Stella Creasy was playing the victim card and the they were exercising free speech as 'obsolete males'?

The difference between bullying and those things deemed as breaking the law is you can walk away from bullying imo. You may not choose to but if you stay, or keep looking to see what has been said no one is doing anything to you; you are making yourself feel worse. I do realise how difficult it may be but you do have a choice. When it comes to threats to life or bodily harm you do not have that choice. I think the simplest rule for any forum is 'no personal remarks'. That then needs those who sometimes take offense personally when it is their views that have been disagreed with to also understand that this is acceptable.

I know some people don't like links and don't pay for the Telegraph anyway, so here's an article by Stella Creasy. You can click on the link or Google, if you want to see some of the abuse she had to put up with.

Stella Creasy Twitter troll hell: 'I can't get the last year of my life back'
As a shadow minister I helped legislation go through parliament to tackle stalking. Little did I know I would end up testing its effectiveness. To date four people have been convicted of sending me ‘malicious communications’ - or threats to rape and kill in layman’s terms. Today’s 18-week prison sentence for Peter Nunn is a firm rejection of his pathetic suggestions he was defending free speech, being a feminist ally and didn’t realise the distress his behaviour caused, when he targeted me on Twitter. He branded me a witch and threatened to harm me in the most gruesome ways. Yet making this about the words he used, and not his course of conduct, risks limiting the lessons it offers.
he patriot in me blanched to be told rape and death threat messages are a British Twitter phenomenon. We learnt this last summer when campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez used it to campaign for equal representation on our banknotes. In return she was subjected to horrific messages threatening her with sexual and physical violence – at their peak around 50 an hour- from multiple anonymous accounts. When others and I stood up for her, we were targeted too.
The fear Mr Nunn and his ilk (147 different Twitter accounts were identified as perpetuating this kind of abuse) created came not just from their language, but the persistence and escalation of their actions. Even when he wasn’t advocating women like Caroline and myself be drowned and violated shortly before death, his sustained interest in our suffering was terrifying. That we repeatedly asked him and the others to stop contacting us, serves to highlight how free speech is only free if both sides can communicate without fear. Moreover, the authorities didn’t even know how to begin investigating whether one person was sending these messages or many individuals - I had to flag up to police one of those convicted was tweeting they lived near me.
Many chastised me that as this abuse was happening online ‘it wasn’t serious’. That we should just ignore those who send such messages; that repeating them was giving them the attention they craved. One police officer even suggested I was picking on the perpetrators by retweeting their threats - until I pointed out that current legislation says you must tell someone to stop and it was the only way I had to let trolls know their tweets were distressing.
A very old crime - harassment- is taking a very new form. That those sending these messages use a new medium - whether Twitter, Facebook, Ask.fm or Instagram - should not define how we assess whether those receiving them are in danger. A year on, I occasionally still get online threats. I regularly get abusive or unwelcome attention. I can see the difference between both, but without detail on who sent them, no one can tell whether I should worry about either.
Several of the technology companies are finally now stepping up their own capability to ensure their platforms are safe for users. We’ve seen a 20 per cent increase in stalking prosecutions in the last year since the aforementioned law was introduced. It’s high-time the police and CPS used these powers to take account of online behaviour too.
Organisations like Paladin, the national stalking helpline, are helping train police and criminal justice representatives. Yet victims often face the difficulties of local law enforcement and negativity online so do not act. That 50 per cent of stalking cases involve online as well as offline activities underscores the need to see the crime as a crime – regardless of the technology used to commit it. One prosecutor suggested to me this could ‘open the floodgates’ of complaints. That there are floodgates to be opened is the real problem, along with overcoming the preconceptions about the internet that prevent them from being tackled in the first place.
I love the potential social media offers for discussion and debate. Yet like any other medium of communication its users define it, not all of whom for the better. No MP asks for special treatment – online I find a kitten picture or the block button a good way of defusing rudeness and grumpiness. But this has never been about people’s right to tell politicians they think they suck.
I can’t get the last year back or erase the inevitable personal impact of getting constant threats. Recently someone followed me from the Tube to talk to me and I felt my heart in my mouth. Sadly and predictably this whole episode has made me more wary of strangers than I wish. But we can keep pushing for those floodgates to be opened. It is not for those affected to ‘put up’ with such attacks, but for those doing this to be stopped.
Another policeman told me my case had convinced him his daughter should not be active online. We try to teach kids to be street smart and would baulk at the idea that street harassment restricts the movement of anyone. So too we will all suffer if the web became only for those who can stomach such assaults. If we want everyone to be free to enjoy kitten videos and discuss Strictly Come Dancing, it’s time we made sure everyone is free to express themselves - on and offline.

No, I had read them bags; I was trying to point out the differing way that people write on forums and some of them can be very confrontational and lacking in understanding ie you should 'feel' things the way that I do and, if you don't you're in the wrong. What you feel is what you feel; period.

Sperm samples stored in sperm banks, I mean.

I wonder how many gransnetters have been told they're obsolete? Not me, anyroad.

Men have been told they're obsolete. With enough sperm samples they could be

Tegan, your post at Sun 15:56:13 does give the impression that you hadn't read some of the intervening posts. I think you did miss something and the something you missed was rather pertinent to the discussion, as anya pointed out. Your next comment was then snide rather than just "whoops!" which would have been perfectly adequate.

We all make mistakes

@sarahc

I don't think many people would agree with your definition of abuse.

Men aren't constantly told they're obsolete. It sounds as though they're playing the victim card.

Is male sexism a class thing?

@Anya

I don't think I've ever 'dished out' what I took at that time. As you have no idea what I'd just been through and how I felt at the time, I shall cite that as an insensitive and ignorant comment and move on.

Can't all be as knowledgeable about absolutely everything as you are Anya I'm afraid....

Tegan you don't know what your talking about. Yes, you are missing something.

My reply to DD was about something completely different and she knows that.

And so should you if you'd read the previous posts carefully.

So, someone writes this 'It happened to me once years ago when I was feeling as low as it's possible to be. I don't talk about it often, but I've suffered from chronic depression for most of my life and every so often have acute flare ups. Somebody wrote something which really affected me and I wrote a comment, which prompted a torrent of abuse from a handful of posters. I actually asked them to stop and explained how it was affecting me, but these people just saw it as a game. I stopped logging on to that site, but they took away from me something which had been a lifeline. As far as I was concerned, that was bullying.'
and one of the responses is'DD that rankled did it? wink Well if you dish it out then you must be prepared to take it too. That sounds like the cut and thrust of GN and people do retaliate if prodded'. Doesn't that just prove that people are different in the way they deal with things and we should always tread carefully when it comes to what we say to people online? Or am I missing something here?

DD that rankled did it? Well if you dish it out then you must be prepared to take it too. That sounds like the cut and thrust of GN and people do retaliate if prodded.

sarah I don't really understand your point. Perhaps you could put in more simply and clearly it might of course be me having been out in the sun too long.

There is world of difference between a discussion (sharing of viewpoints strongly or not) and abuse. Abuse is designed to completely cancel out another person's right to exist as a separate human being. Those on the receiving end whether verbal or physical know exactly how it makes them feel as abuse is basically violence (the urge to destroy). If you plead with someone trying to destroy you, it will make their job easier.

The present plague of online trolling is being fueled by the current fashion for pitting different sections of society against each other - women against men , blacks against whites, young against old. Plus the fact that no one is allowed to retaliate without being labelled phobic. Its not women against men or anybody else we all have human rights along with all life forms on earth.
Do you really expect men to sit back and be constantly told they're obsolete or white and middle aged with out retaliating. Grow up everybody. If women would stop playing the victim men wouldn't be able to issue rape threats or anything else.

Oh, I'm very chilled , but I do find it annoying, when people (for example) call somebody 'arrogant as usual' or some such thing. Maybe you don't see it like that.