Wesley Fenlon | Not with a bang but a whimper.

I happened to notice Malwebolence on Digg the day it was published at the beginning of August.  Typically I skim over headlines and very rarely go for entire articles, but Malwebolence was apparently enough in line with my interests to take the plunge.  And I was very glad I did; for the next 20 minutes, I was enthralled.  The last article I recall being so fascinated by was this one, written by an LA Times reporter about Joe Francis, infamous founder of the Girls Gone Wild empire.  Obviously, there’s a bit of similarity here.  Both stories give a personal, inside look into a very disturbing part of the human mind.

Francis is a simple case: he’s a terrible person who profits off of drunk college students and has raped or molested more than one.  But trolling is a whole ‘nother scenario.  It’s infinitely more complex.  So many issues are tied to this action, and I’d it brings into question human morality more harshly than anything in the past several years, if not decades.  Why do they do it?  What makes certain people have the moral flexibility to do what they do?  Who has the right to tell them to stop?

Some of the cases are pretty black and white.  Posting someone’s phone number and massing a gang to harass someone is clearly a violation of privacy.  Obtaining their social security number and using it illegally?  Same thing.  It’s hard not to see these as completely wrong.  But even believing that to be the case, what can you really do about it?  This is when trolling becomes a real societal problem–when it crosses into the real world.

However, I firmly believe that there is very little action anyone has a right to take against trolls.  Freedom of speech is, as always, something to fight for.  In the cases where trolling leads to real-world privacy invasion, legal action is warranted–but it’s practically impossible to really catch anyone.  Where do we draw the line in governing our own morality?

There’s doubtlessly been talk about trying to shut down places like 4chan and IRC chatrooms where the crueler denizens of the web congregate, but even if such a thing were possible, I think it would be a mistake.  As Schwartz points out, most of these people naturally inhabit these very places, which largely keeps them out of the way of the public…which keeps the largely-unprepared public a little bit safer, too.

Moreover, the aspect of human morality these places represent is no less real than the blog of a disillusioned housewife or raving investor.  They’re absolutely fascinating.  Just as the web has developed its own language in the form of abbreviations and acronyms, trolls, /b/tards, and the like have further morphed English into a perversion of itself.  Memes dominate the flow of conversation; for instance, “an hero” literally translates to “commit suicide.”  It’s kind of like reading a lolcat, only without the funny.

Anonymity has certainly granted anyone the ability to be an asshole if he or she so chooses.  I certainly hate trolls.  I’ve moderated sites and had to deal with them, I’ve seen them ruin discussions, and anyone who has played on Xbox Live can attest to the sheer amount of vitriol that’s spouted over voice chat in practically any game.

But they still interest me.  Weev and Fortuny, for all their maliciousness, have redeeming qualities.  The former thought posting strobing images on a site about epilepsy crossed a moral barrier; the latter feels that his cruelty is teaching people a lesson.  I doubt any of us have impersonated a woman with the express purpose of manipulating an audience and challenging the authority of a law meant to protect people.  But I bet none of us have posted a safe web-surfing guie for epileptics, either.

The quote “This seems to spring from something ugly — a destructive human urge that many feel but few act upon, the ambient misanthropy that’s a frequent ingredient of art, politics and, most of all, jokes. There’s a lot of hate out there, and a lot to hate as well.” stares into the heart of the issue of why trolls do what they do.  It doesn’t give us any answers, solutions to what could be considered a crisis of immorality and cruelty. But maybe trying to figure out why people act the way they do is more important than knowing how to make them stop.

–Wesley Fenlon