Social Media and Internet Regulation Essay

There are various categories that Cyberbullying can be prosecuted under in Australia’s criminal framework. But a lack of specific definitions of what ‘Cyberbullying’ leaves the severity of the crime up to interpretation and often the issue is not addressed to the satisfaction of the victim.

Daniel D’Addario wrote an article called “Everything is ‘Trolling’ Now,” which is about internet trolling. Trolling is generally regarded as an intentionally offensive remark or action against a person or group of people who hold a certain ideology in order to get a reaction (421). However, D’Addario takes note in the article of an apparent oversaturation of the word ‘troll.’ Individuals will call many different things a form of trolling, to the point that it seems as though just holding an opinion is enough to be considered as a personal attack against other people. D’Addario even mocks this by occasionally placing quotation marks around the word ‘troll,’ to call into question a particular instance of its usage. Through sourcing, comparisons,

Trolling brutally sabotage the victims’ life long achievements. Trolls viciously post and spread rumors or secrets about victims destroying every parts of their lives. Trolls argue that victims do not need to see the posts or comments. The victims can simply log off from social network services, or close the accounts if necessary.

The Communications Decency Act, as part of a longer Telecommunication Act, basically states that anyone who uses the Internet to make any “patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards, sexual or excretory activities or organs” communication to someone under 18 is breaking the law and can be fined or jailed.[iii]

It is defined as “a hostile expression of strong emotion, such as swearing, insults, and name calling”(Lee, 385). Online these strong emotions are accompanied by capital letters, bold face text, the use of icons, and so on. This is a form of cyber bullying that is not given as much attention as it deserves. According to DoSomething.org, bully victims are up to 9 times more likely to consider committing suicide. This number is so concerning, because bullying, such as flaming, is becoming easier than ever as more and more children become involved with social media and the like. As computer-mediated communication is gaining popularity, people are losing out on face-to-face interactions. Individuals stop seeing their virtual conversation partners as people and use chatrooms and comment boxes as an outlet for anger and aggression, without thinking of the people they could be

Another type of cyber or text bullying is called harassment, which is when a person sends one or many

Trolling is described as “the art of deliberately, cleverly, and secretly pissing people off, usually via the internet, using dialogue” (n.d., 2009). The person committing the act is known as a troll, “an internet slang for people who intentionally tries to instigate conflict, hostility, or arguments in an online social community” (insert citation here). Some popular examples of social communities that experience trolling are YouTube, web forums, and chat rooms.

A cyber trolling - is a range of online behaviors of those who post a deliberately provocative message with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument. Trolls target specific individuals - authors of debatable content. They do everything to provoke and arouse trouble, tearing apart anyone whose opinion or position they don't like.

What is trolling and who does it affect? Some people say the word and act of trolling on the internet has evolved drastically over the years. I, for one, am not sure if I agree with that. If anything, I think it has been used as an umbrella term with alternative meanings just like the word “friend”. Friend is used as an umbrella term to describe many meanings such as; a true friend, an acquaintance, or someone you are friends with on social media, to name a few. With this formal response, I will discuss the different terms kept under this umbrella to dissect the word “trolling”. The two types of trolling consist of, playful trolling and malicious trolling. Trolling when used for fun can provide a good laugh, or annoy a friend in a non-harmful or malicious way. To me, this is what the actual definition of trolling is. The main purpose being, to do it in good fun. Although, trolling with malicious intent which I will talk about in more depth, I don’t consider to be actual trolling, this is cyberbullying or defamation. When this happens, it can get ugly quick and has even led to lawsuits, murder, and suicide.

When announcing this change, Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary of the UK, expressed his concern about the subject, explaining that most of the gruesome online dialect would not be tolerated in person (Graham). He identifies most internet trolls as plain and simple cowards. In an article written by Georgia Graham, she explores the possibility of this law being used in the wrong way. She states that there is a definitive difference between those who “vigorously express an opinion” and those who are “vile-abusers” (Graham). Rape and death threats are absolute examples of vile abuse and a chaste, catty comment on Facebook or Twitter is a great example of those who take their vigorous criticism too far. The public then has to ask, how and who is going to determine these differences from circumstance to circumstance? If you’re going to give that power to legislature, where will the limitations of that power begin and

We cannot deny how big of an impact social media has on our lives now, not only on people but businesses too. It has opened a whole new door to the business world and given them a big opportunity to interact and attract a larger amount of customers. It’s given us a new and faster way of communication by exchanging pictures, stories, news, blogs, online discussions, etc. In exchange businesses have benefited by a long shot just by the click of a button. With the help of the Internet a company no longer is dependent on a particular customer base to survive because now it can reach out to a worldwide audience within seconds. It’s imaginable the countless business attributes of all social media to this day and still is growing. Social media

Internet trolls can be found on a variety of websites. There are many heated topics up for debate on the Internet: gun control, foreign policies, abortion, religious beliefs, political views, the list goes on and on. These topics are hotspots for Internet bullies to go ‘trolling’.

These days the internet has become an essential part to living for almost everyone but one of the controversial topics that people bring up is that whether or not the government should regulate information on the internet. Both sides have valid points which form a reasonable argument. Some people would say that they need to because of the dangers lurking around in the cyber world but the reasons for why the government shouldn’t regulate the Internet outnumber the reasons for why they should. The federal government should not regulate or censor information on the internet because doing so violates the first amendment and citizen’s right to privacy, degrades the educational value of the web, prevents the promotion and facilitation of

Technology can be used in many ways to cyber bully. Barnardos released a booklet in 2012 outlining a number of key risk factors of cyber bullying. Personal intimidation includes actions such as sending out threatening text messages, posting abusive and threatening comments on the victim’s Facebook profiles or other websites and the use of instant messaging in chat rooms etc. to threaten the victim further. Impersonation involves setting up fake profiles and web pages that are attributed to the victim; this also involves hacking or gaining access to the victims profile to contact or instant message others. Exclusion encompasses blocking an individual from a class group or community group on a social media website. Personal humiliation is a behaviour that involves posting images or videos of the victim that are intended to embarrass or humiliate them. This can be done on Facebook or by text messaging etc. And lastly false reporting, this is where the bully reports the victim to the service provider for a range of behaviours with a view to having the account suspended, blocked or deleted (Get With It, 2012).

The cases registered under section 66A faced several negative repercussions from the public for the sole reason of violating their freedom of speech and expression. Such actions attracted lot of media attention and resulted in huge protests from the side of public. The State Governments were advised that “as regards to arrest of any person in complaint registered under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, the concerned police officer of a police station under the State’s jurisdiction may not arrest any person until he/she has obtained prior approval of such arrest, from an officer, not below the rank