This week’s blog will be regarding two terms that we discussed in class this past week. We were required to read two articles based on a troll that made headlines for posting things on a website called REDDIT which is a type of message board. A message board is a forum where people with similar interests can discuss topics with others of like interests. A troll, for those of you who don’t know, is someone who posts inciting, off topic and/or offensive messages in order to provoke readers to give an emotional response. A troll exploits social norms and conversations and topics that people do not like to speak on.
The specific troll that is the center of both articles is called VIOLENTACREZ. Violentacrez is a troll who used to post things on Reddit.com. Reddit.com is a social news site where anyone can submit and vote on content and anyone can start a forum dedicated to their interests. Any forum that is created is known as a “subreddit.” Violentacrez is known for posting on a subreddit called “Jailbait” that distributed images of underage girls dressed with marginal amounts of clothing but also has added on to the racist, pornographic, violence, and exotic abomination subreddits. He also added to the topics called “chokeabitch, ni**erjailbait, rapebait, hitler, jewmerica, misogyny, and incest.” Violentacrez never regretted anything he did. He stood by all of his work.
However, Violentacrez’ posts brought a lot of attention to the Reddit website. Anderson Cooper mentioned Violentacrez on CNN, which brought him a lot of negative feedback for posting such offensive topics and sections. After his shoutout, Violentacrez began gaining fame and created a subreddit dedicated to news and posts about himself, altered the Reddit logo to make his own logo and began selling t-shirts.
The next article that we had to read regarded whether or not it was okay to unmask a troll knowing that they have personal lives outside of the Internet. The article was focused on what the moral and ethic costs of outing people and focusing attention on them even if it was unwanted attention. The article explained that the infamous troll named Violentacrez begged and pleaded for the journalist to not exploit him but she did so regardless. What many people do not know about Violentacrez is that he has a disabled wife and part of the reason why he did not want to get exploited was so that she wouldn’t get any of the backlash and effects from the publicity but what happened was worse. Violentacrez lost his job and the health insurance that paid for his wife’s care.
People were ecstatic to know whom the infamous troll was and that he had been exploited for his shameful behavior on the Internet. Internet users believed that he abused technology to manipulate the idea of “free speech” to provoke prejudices and harassment for his own entertainment. A quote that really caught my eye from the article was: “the same tactic that trolls use to out people is the same tactic that people use to out troll.” After seeing what happened to Violentacrez, it leaves the question is outing people moral or immoral?
http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/10/truth-lies-doxxing-internet-vigilanteism/
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