Tag Archives: Castella and Brown

In their article “Trolling: Who does it and why?”, Tom de Castella and Virginia Brown (2011) talks about the effect of trolling in modern times. They explain how trolling became part of an international phenomenon that includes cyber bullying. The Bill of Rights does not help solve this problem since, the first amendment protects free speech and makes it difficult to punish people for trolling online.  The authors deduce that people cannot help when it comes to this type of crime. They explain that anyone is capable to become a troll. Many people want the satisfaction of someone noticing what they wrote and this gives them the motivation to write something “emotional.” Since laws are not updated to match cyber crime, it is hard for police to stop it. However, in recent years the police system has tried harder to combat menacing people who hide behind the screen.  The authors explain a way to combat the trolling in newspaper, websites and other media. They state that media forums should employ sufficient moderators to prevent the comments from becoming petty vendettas. Tom de Castella and Virginia Brown explains what trolling is, the examples of it and why people may do it. They also mention a way to combat trolling, since free speech should not be taken away. We need to find a way to better deal with trolling behind the screen.