New Legal Guidelines to Target Internet Trolls

[Ink]

Internet trolls who create derogatory hashtags or doctored images to humiliate others could face prosecution in England and Wales.

Inciting people to harass others online, known as virtual mobbing, could also result in court action, under new Crown Prosecution Service guidance.

The new guidance aims to help police identify online crimes more easily.

It also highlights those who post people's personal information, such as bank details - known as doxxing.

"The internet's not an anonymous place where people can post without any consequences. People should think about their own conduct. If you are grossly abusive to people, if you are bullying or harassing people online, then we will prosecute in the same way as if you did it offline."

- Director of Public Prosecutions, Allison Saunders​

"With the laws in the UK, if someone is trolling you from outside the UK - and my last batch of trolls were from the US - the police said we can't do anything."

- Kevin Healey​

Continue Reading - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37601431

 

[Exterminator]

This is an excellent article on a very real crime with very real legal consequences.
I had to hit the feature button on this one because many people feel they protected under the cloak of anonymity and free from prosecution. Both of these are a false sense of security and depending on the country can result in some very real jail time.
It remains to be seen what impact this will really have on the problem but at the very least it will,to some degree,be a deterrent.

 

[Nico@FMA]

This is an excellent article on a very real crime with very real legal consequences.
I had to hit the feature button on this one because many people feel they protected under the cloak of anonymity and free from prosecution. Both of these are a false sense of security and depending on the country can result in some very real jail time.
It remains to be seen what impact this will really have on the problem but at the very least it will,to some degree,be a deterrent.

It is indeed a good article. The only shame is that i can see this being used as a way to control and regulate the Internet and steer the masses into a direction where one can dictate what people can and cannot say regarding a government or such.
Also international law is to fragmented to effectively do something against Cyber criminals (in whatever shape or form they come)
Breaking into a server or site is like breaking into someones house and should be treated exactly as such, yet the greatest good of the Internet is the freedom to say whatever you wanna say. Within reason obviously.
But cursing and calling names is not against the law, stalking however as in the down syndrome case is and should be punished.
On the other-hand rather then censoring and making regulations to target trolls (and people getting caught in between) one needs to be careful what you write on the Internet specially when it is about private stuff.
Spreading your private story to anyone on-line is eventually a magnet for trolls.
But aside that, those who go so wrong by hammering people like the down syndrome case should be jailed.

 

[Exterminator]

There does come a time,speaking in terms of law,when the line is crossed between joking,name calling and cursing to out right stalking.
Cyber stalking is a very real crime with very real consequences.
By implementing laws/guidelines such as these gives more latitude in prosecuting these people.
There is a difference between Cyber Crime and Cyber Stalking.
Cyber Stalking should be considered no different than stalking.
Obviously social media attracts these type of "criminals" but we cannot lay blame on the victim.
It is no different than a prostitute that gets raped and killed by a serial rapist and then saying "it might not have happened if she didn't put herself in a dangerous situation"
It is fairly easy to catch these people but prosecuting them is another story however it is a step in the right direction.

 

[Omnipotent]

Preventing/Censoring trolls wouldn't be effective in my opinion. That will just drive them to continue doing it, adding more fuel to the fire. It's the same concept as Ransomware. If you choose to pay the ransom, you are encouraging them to continue doing it. Instead they should use Restorative Practices to teach the person right and wrong instead of punishing them. When students are punished in schools they're not learning, they're are only being punished. It all comes down to their personality too. Trolls are usually anti-social, sadistic and narcissistic.

Here's a good video on the science behind trolls if you've never seen it:

 

[Nico@FMA]

There does come a time,speaking in terms of law,when the line is crossed between joking,name calling and cursing to out right stalking.
Cyber stalking is a very real crime with very real consequences.
By implementing laws/guidelines such as these gives more latitude in prosecuting these people.
There is a difference between Cyber Crime and Cyber Stalking.
Cyber Stalking should be considered no different than stalking.
Obviously social media attracts these type of "criminals" but we cannot lay blame on the victim.
It is no different than a prostitute that gets raped and killed by a serial rapist and then saying "it might not have happened if she didn't put herself in a dangerous situation"
It is fairly easy to catch these people but prosecuting them is another story however it is a step in the right direction.

Yes you are right its a step in the right direction, but this should not be a national initiative it should be a international effort.
Here in the Netherlands Cyber Crime laws might be in their child stage, but they are there and if you are being stalked then in some cases THTC (Team High Tech Crime) a department of police and NCSC (Netherlands Cyber Security Center) does have the ability to effective search and arrest a stalker within the Netherlands IF and only IF the victim presses charges. The justice department will NOT be mild in its punishment. Last year and this year some cases did make the media where the Dutch Justice department used the same legal route (To search and arrest international child p... (and other disgusting stuff) to issue international arrest warrants against stalkers, fraudscammies and hackers and other internet criminals that could NOT have been arrested if the normal legal route would have been taken. Anyway using the far reaching international anti (child p...) agreements and the enabled options that come forth out of this multinational cooperation did lead to arrests in the UK, US Canada, EU mainland and even in Asia. But again it is only possible if charges are being pressed by the victim.
One could ask how do the know who did what? Well within the EU there is something called ISP data retention it does not just store data but also everyday Internet traffic and other juicy stuff (A heaven for a crime specialist lol) So if you are being stalked or any of that then this data can lead back to the source and get them arrested.
The bad part about it is that a international legal system put in place to catch child p... networks and heavy weight cyber criminals is being abused to catch "lower" scumbags since there is internationally virtually not a single effective law to combat that.

Preventing/Censoring trolls wouldn't be effective in my opinion. That will just drive them to continue doing it, adding more fuel to the fire. It's the same concept as Ransomware. If you choose to pay the ransom, you are encouraging them to continue doing it. Instead they should use Restorative Practices to teach the person right and wrong instead of punishing them. When students are punished in schools they're not learning, they're are only being punished. It all comes down to their personality too. Trolls are usually anti-social, sadistic and narcissistic.

Here's a good video on the science behind trolls if you've never seen it:

Someone who stalks for example a seriously sick kid and her parents who try to safe their little child by using the Internet to draw attention to the cause and raise some money for a lifesaving surgery. Then this stalker does not have anything to learn IMO but he should be beaten with a wooden-stick (full on) for 1 hour 3 times a day for the same amount of days as his stalking lasted.
And then i am being mild.... If that guy survives trust me he did learn. <evil grins> see if he even stalks again.

Regards,
Nico

 

[ElectricSheep]

Trolls are like cats.
Feed them and they keep coming back for more! Obviously the best thing to do is ignore them, but some people just cannot leave them alone!

I've seen first hand how messy a troll situation can become and it's something that has taken up a HUGE amount of my time in dealing with it.

 

[rosendalek]

"With the laws in the UK, if someone is trolling you from outside the UK - and my last batch of trolls were from the US - the police said we can't do anything."

And that is a problem, if someone in the UK uses a VPN and routes their IP via say Russia, they may be hard to prosecute, as the trolling would appear to originate from russia

 

[Deleted member 178]

IF they come here , leave them to me

 

[_CyberGhosT_]

IF they come here , leave them to me

In Umbra we trust.
Seriously though, it is a very real issue, and it is great to see the UK again taking a
proactive approach to Internet related issues, they have been very active as of late
implementing security and other changes, they are on the ball.
Cool Share Spawn