There’s no doubt social media is a great innovation. Except for one thing: the people who choose to use their keyboards as weapons of hate.
But if anyone thinks tech giants like Facebook and Twitter are doing everything in their power to silence the idiots of the internet, they’re in for a shock. Not only do these companies welcome trolls, they benefit from more of them.
It’s as cynical a business model as there is, but bullies, it seems, are good for profits.
In this 60 MINUTES investigation, Tom Steinfort interviews former senior executives from Facebook and Twitter who reveal the dirty tricks used to encourage the trolls. But Steinfort also reports there’s a fightback underway led by high-profile Australians who have been subjected to cruel and targeted attacks.
Former NRL coach Anthony Seibold, who was the victim of a horrendous attack, has launched his own investigation to track down those who spread vicious untruths about him on social media.
Channel 9’s Erin Molan, who has suffered years of unrelenting abuse on Facebook and other platforms, is now campaigning for much tougher penalties, including prison sentences for perpetrators of trolling.
As she tells Steinfort,
“This impacts every single Australian. The time to ignore trolls is over. The time to prosecute trolls is here!”
Reporter: Tom Steinfort – Producer: Madeleine Apps
GAME OF THRONES
60 MINUTES reporter Liam Bartlett used to consider the British Royal family to be the masters – and mistresses – of scandal.
Now he thinks they may have to hand over their crown to the Belgian Royal family, who have sensationally been ordered to acknowledge and recognise a brand-new princess. However, this decree is not a reason for official celebration on the streets of Brussels because, rather embarrassingly, the new royal is the 52-year-old love child of the former King, Albert II.
Back in the 1960s when he was a prince, the supposedly happily married and deeply religious Albert took a long-term lover. Delphine Boel was the surprise consequence of the illicit affair. For most of her life she dutifully kept mum about her lineage, until a bitter falling out with her father changed her mind.
Reporter: Liam Bartlett – Producers: Garry McNab, Tracey Hannaford
Part of the trouble with trolling rests with the people being trolled themselves. Shocking? Not really. Dig a little and you’ll find the people who can’t handle it the most are generally VERY wrapped up in a narcissistic love affair with social media and being spoken about in general. Compare them to people who don’t use, or barely use, social media. Those people don’t seem to have anywhere near the same issue because they aren’t so wrapt up in an imaginary world that it’s become their reality. This doesn’t excuse trolls at all, however, given that many people are pre-disposed to being arseholes and that won’t be changing anytime soon, it’s clear that the answer rests with people not creating narcissistic realities around themselves to begin with. Dispense with those and suddenly some faceless person from who knows where, telling you that you’re an imbecile, just doesn’t matter.