Zelda Williams forced to delete Twitter after 'trolling' relating to father Robin Williams' death

[CreekDog]

Trolling is real.

Zelda Williams forced to delete Twitter after 'trolling' relating to father Robin Williams' death

Robin Williams's daughter, Zelda, has excused herself from social media after receiving cruel and offensive messages following his death. The celebrated actor and comedian, who was 63, was found dead on Monday at his home in Tiburon, northern California, in an apparent suicide. Ms Williams said she intended to delete the Twitter app from her devices “for a good long time, maybe forever,” after several users sent her graphic, Photoshopped images of her father.

The 25-year-old, who is herself an actor, also left her Instagram account dormant. “I will be leaving this account ... while I heal and decide if I'll be deleting it or not,” she wrote in a caption. “In this difficult time, please try to be respectful of the accounts of myself, my family and my friends.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/zelda-williams-forced-to-delete-twitter-after-apparent-trolling-9666190.html

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Sometimes I just want to resign from the human race.

Maybe I'll be a cat and devote my life (lives) to the creation of cute Youtube videos. I just can't imagine why some people are so gratuitously mean.

[Baitball Blogger]

5. I wonder if the dolphins will accept us as refuges?

[jwirr]

11. Don't - stick with us. Those trollers are not human.

[Prophet 451]

19. Can I join you?

[Bettie]

2. WTF is wrong with people?

I don't understand people's need to be nasty at the deaths of people.

Even when people without whom the world is arguably a better place, I've felt sympathy for those who may have loved them.

I'm sorry that some people are such assholes. My hope is that there are more decent humans than not.

[Jackpine Radical]

6. Rest assured that there are more decent humans than not.

Even though it doesn't seem that way much of the time.

E.E. Buckels et al, "Trolls just want to have fun," Personality and Individual Differences, 2014.

The research, conducted by Erin Buckels of the University of Manitoba and two colleagues, sought to directly investigate whether people who engage in trolling are characterized by personality traits that fall in the so-called Dark Tetrad: Machiavellianism (willingness to manipulate and deceive others), narcissism (egotism and self-obsession), psychopathy (the lack of remorse and empathy), and sadism (pleasure in the suffering of others).

It is hard to overplay the results: The study found correlations, sometimes quite significant, between these traits and trolling behavior. What’s more, it also found a relationship between all Dark Tetrad traits (except for narcissism) and the overall time that an individual spent, per day, commenting on the Internet.

In the study, trolls were identified in a variety of ways. One was by simply asking survey participants what they “enjoyed doing most” when on online comment sites, offering five options: “debating issues that are important to you,” “chatting with others,” “making new friends,” “trolling others,” and “other.”

To be sure, only 5.6 percent of survey respondents actually specified that they enjoyed “trolling.” By contrast, 41.3 percent of Internet users were “non-commenters,” meaning they didn’t like engaging online at all. So trolls are, as has often been suspected, a minority of online commenters, and an even smaller minority of overall Internet users.

[kentauros]

12. Perhaps trolls are "an even smaller minority of overall Internet users"

but if you eliminate the numbers for the "non-commenters" the trolls' percentage goes up. That's because they are part of the subset of "vocal Internet users" and it works out to 9.5%

So, almost 10% of all Internet users that make comments are trolls. That's a significant number to me.

[Trillo]

17. Doubtful that all such activity is actually separate individuals

One person, or several groups of people, may be "message force multiplying" their activities via sock puppet software. The following is just an example of such software, I don't mean to say nor imply the U.S. Military is doing this trolling against Ms. Williams, but the software capability demonstrates the possibilities for nearly any small group to appear larger than it is.

The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.

A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world.

The project has been likened by web experts to China's attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet. Critics are likely to complain that it will allow the US military to create a false consensus in online conversations, crowd out unwelcome opinions and smother commentaries or reports that do not correspond with its own objectives.

The discovery that the US military is developing false online personalities – known to users of social media as "sock puppets" – could also encourage other governments, private companies and non-government organisations to do the same.

[kentauros]

20. Wow. I didn't know about that.

At this point, it makes me wonder what the future of the Internet will be. Because, so far, it isn't looking like we'll get a Star Trek-style future, much less even the more realistic Babylon 5 kind...

[bullwinkle428]

3. This made me want to break things when I heard about it this morning.

[hlthe2b]

8. Indeed. And some wonder why I avoid social media like the plague.

Obviously, I get exposed to it online--even here.. But, I surely am not going to participate.

[zappaman]

4. Sometimes I really really miss the days of no internet.

Today is one of those days.

[uppityperson]

7. wtf is wrong with some people

[alsame]

9. Despicable. Peace and healing

to the family

[NuclearDem]

10. Fucking psychopaths.

[steve2470]

13. horrible people indeed

Hopefully the vast majority of those trollers were kids, who will hopefully grow up to be compassionate adults.

[justiceischeap]

14. Social media very much reminds me of a baser "Lord of the Flies" nt

[JI7]

15. i wonder if anyone will try to claim this wasn't really meant as an attack on her and her father

because people have photoshopped pics and posted them at other times including to friends and family.

[hifiguy]

16. Professor?

[conservaphobe]

18. Precisely why I support websites who require valid identification to register.

People are not as vitriolic when they don't have the comfort of anonymity.

[Omaha Steve]

21. I was going to post this

Thanks for posting.

K&R!

OS

[CreekDog]

22. the story is upsetting isn't it?

[Omaha Steve]

24. Yes it is!

[Boomerproud]

23. My deepest sympathy to Zelda Williams, her brothers and stepmother.

My advice-save the offensive posts and out these cretins. There isn't a social media site that doesn't reek when terrible events happen.