The 'wtf is wrong with these people?' thread.

[DanaC]

Sometimes people can just be such utter dicks. Internet trolls in particular - not the ones who stalk comments threads and try to derail sensible discussions - they're just annoying, occasionally entertaining. No - I'm talking about these kinds of people:

A dossier of online abuse directed at the parents of Madeleine McCann is being examined by police.

Their little girl was snatched several years ago and hasn't been seen since. Quite possibly dead - or worse.

The material posted by online “trolls” is said to have included suggestions that the couple should be tortured or killed. One message board comment reportedly said: “These 2 should burn in hell.”

Sky News said other posts in the dossier included: “I hope that the McCanns are living in total misery,” and “I want to see them smashed up the back of a bus or trampled by horses.” Some messages were said to have been directed at Madeleine’s younger siblings, now aged nine.

Seriously - wtf is wrong with these people?

Their 'contributions' were so extreme and worrying that they prompted uninvolved members of the public to report the matter to police :

The posts were gathered by people who are concerned about the abuse. One campaigner, who did not wish to be named, told Sky News: “We’re very worried that it’s only going to take somebody to act out of some of these discussions, some of the threats that have been made, and we couldn’t live with ourselves if that happened and we had done nothing.”

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2...lice-madeleine

[Clodfobble]

What the article fails to mention is that there was a lot of evidence at the time that the girl was not snatched, but rather the parents themselves killed her and disposed of the body. It happened while on vacation, and supposedly the Portuguese police were busy gathering additional damning evidence when the family said, "Ah, thanks for everything, we're going home to our own country now."

No charges were ever formally filed so they are innocent until proven guilty, and harassment is not okay in any case. But it's not like these people are just taunting them over their dead child for fun.

[limey]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

What the article fails to mention is that there was a lot of evidence at the time that the girl was not snatched, but rather the parents themselves killed her and disposed of the body. It happened while on vacation, and supposedly the Portuguese police were busy gathering additional damning evidence when the family said, "Ah, thanks for everything, we're going home to our own country now."

No charges were ever formally filed so they are innocent until proven guilty, and harassment is not okay in any case. But it's not like these people are just taunting them over their dead child for fun.

No, Clod, I disagree. They are taunting this couple for fun. I do remember the cloud of suspicion thrown over the parents and, frankly I felt (and still feel) that way to a certain extent, it is so often the persons closest and most apparently distressed who have committed the awfullest crimes. This is exactly like these people are taunting them over their dead child for fun.

[BigV]

threats have been made
should burn in hell
should be trampled by horses
should be smashed by a bus
should live in misery
comments also directed at younger siblings, aged nine.

You see *anything* constructive in comments like these? How can comments like these help OR hinder the Portuguese police, who could continue their investigation regardless?

[DanaC]

Also - much of that reporting has been shown to be libellous and deliberately so; primarily from the Murdoch press. The latest was the Sunday Times, which ran front page stories almost a year ago claiming that the McCanns had deliberately obstructed the Portugese police. They used misleading tactics, misquoted people, and then when they did print a retraction and apology it was hidden away on a insidepage, twomonths after they'd broken the story. They've just had to pay out £50k for that one.

There's always a question mark over parents. But it seems that most of the evidence now points to someone having taken the kid and the Portugese police having acted with incompetence.

And if the dickheads trolling this family were just concerned with justice and really thought the parents were guilty - wtf did they direct some of that trolling and bile towards the two young children?

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

harassment is not okay in any case.

All I was saying is that the newspaper was disingenuous for not even referring to the family's history. Casey Anthony and George Zimmerman and Jon Benet Ramsey's parents are harassed on a daily basis too, and there's a reason for it. It's a bad reason, and the harassment is still morally wrong, but it's foolish to pretend this shit happens in a vacuum.

[DanaC]

I understand - and I also agree that the context is important.

It was this bit I was taking issue with really - 'there was a lot of evidence at the time that the girl was not snatched, but rather the parents themselves killed her and disposed of the body.'

There wasn't a lot of evidence at the time - but there was a lot of reporting of such evidence. Much of which has been shown to be libellous.

[glatt]

What does it mean to "direct a comment towards someone?"

Are they calling them up in the middle of the night? Sending them letters and notes? Sending them emails? Or are they just making comments in their own FB status updates or in tweets?

I saw a lot of media coverage around the OJ Simpson trial. I'm convinced OJ Simpson is a murderer, base entirely on that media coverage, even though he was found not guilty in a court of law. When I say that OJ is a murderer, here on this public forum, am I also a dickhead troll unfairly directing comments at OJ?

Perhaps if those parents don't want to see nasty comments about themselves, they shouldn't do vanity hashtag searches for themselves on twitter. There was plenty of negative press about them, and it's understandable that a number of people view them unfavorably now and talk about it on the internet.

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by glatt

What does it mean to "direct a comment towards someone?"

Are they calling them up in the middle of the night? Sending them letters and notes? Sending them emails? Or are they just making comments in their own FB status updates or in tweets?

I saw a lot of media coverage around the OJ Simpson trial. I'm convinced OJ Simpson is a murderer, base entirely on that media coverage, even though he was found not guilty in a court of law. When I say that OJ is a murderer, here on this public forum, am I also a dickhead troll unfairly directing comments at OJ?

Perhaps if those parents don't want to see nasty comments about themselves, they shouldn't do vanity hashtag searches for themselves on twitter. There was plenty of negative press about them, and it's understandable that a number of people view them unfavorably now and talk about it on the internet.

They aren't the ones who brought the trolling to the attention of police.

Internet trolls who aim abuse, including death threats, at the family of missing girl Madeleine McCann could be prosecuted as part of a new police investigation.


The Metropolitan Police has been passed an 80-page dossier of hundreds of tweets, Facebook posts and messages on online forums accusing Kate and Gerry McCann of being involved in their daughter’s disappearance in Portugal in 2007, and telling them they should “burn in hell”.

The evidence was compiled by members of the public, appalled at the campaign of abuse aimed at the McCann’s by the largely anonymous trolls, who are convinced of the McCanns’ guilt despite no supporting evidence.


Posts charted in the dossier include suggestions that the McCanns should be tortured and killed, reports of recent sightings of the couple, and manipulated images of the couple, showing them behind bars or surrounded by piles of cash.
Other messages are directed at Madeleine’s younger siblings, nine-year-old twins Sean and Amelie.

One Twitter troll, whose username is ‘Sweepyface’ and has posted dozens of anti-McCann messages using the #mccann hashtag said that she was “entitled” to attack the couple when confronted by Sky News.

Authors of the dossier are calling on prosecutors to take action against the posters under the Malicious Communications Act 2003, which bans online messages containing threats of violence or that could cause stress or alarm to their targets.
Among the messages identified in the dossier is an exchange on a message board which reads:

“These 2 should burn in hell”; “I will supply the petrol”; “I’ll supply the lighter – happily”.

In one of her tweets, “Sweepyface” called for the McCanns to suffer “for the rest of their miserable lives”.

Other trolls claimed to live near the McCanns in Leicestershire, and detail supposed sightings of the family, in the gym or out shopping.

Six Twitter accounts have been set up to abuse the McCanns, the dossier says, with eight “persistent and prolific” anti-McCann activists identified. Dozens of others are said to have participated in the abuse.

Other tactics include attempts complain about the McCanns through Freedom of Information requests, the bombardment of the BBC Crimewatch show message board and Facebook pages. Anthony Summers, the author of a recent book that argues the McCanns are innocent, has also been targeted.
The campaigner spearheading the appeal, who has asked to remain anonymous, told Sky News that they feared that trolls would one day translate their threats into actions.

They said: “We know that this is still continuing, that it's escalating at an alarming rate, and becoming bolder and a lot of what they're posting is becoming much more sinister.”

Jim Gamble, a former police officer and online security expert, said: “I think the time has come for the hard-core few in the midst of this group to be investigated.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...by-police.html

[glatt]

That's what I thought. They aren't contacting the parents.

So if I say here that OJ is a murderer and deserves to burn in Hell, am I committing a crime under the Malicious Communications Act 2003?

[DanaC]

No. But if you set up several twitter accounts and use them to promote violence against OJ and spam facebook pages and other sites with death threats and declarations of his guilt then probably. If you also send death threats via Twitter to the person who wrote about him then yeah. And if you live in the same town and post regular intime updates about where he is and what he is doing along with suggestiions that someone should go and deal with him for real, then yeah.

Some of this is malicious and incitement to violence, along with intimidation. Some of it is just plain libellous. Very little of this is just a few people innocently chatting on a message board and expressing an opinion. As the police fellah said -

“I think the time has come for the hard-core few in the midst of this group to be investigated.”

[glatt]

Originally Posted by DanaC

As the police fellah said -

That guy is not a police fellah.

They should actually get some quotes from any official source at all to round this story out instead of just basing it on what is essentially a press release by the internet group that doesn't like the other internet group.

[DanaC]

I meant he used to be a police officer.

[Undertoad]

Problem... solved?

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2...rolling-claims