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Business Daily: Internet Trolls: The Who and Why of Online Abuse

30/04/2015

Internet Trolls: The Who and Why of Online Abuse

BBC World Service - Business Daily, Internet Trolls: The Who and Why of Online Abuse

Why do people troll and what can social media companies do about it?

Trolling, or persistent online abuse, is as much a feature of the internet as videos of cute kittens. Why?

We find out why trolling has become as much a feature of the internet as videos of cute kittens. Author Jon Ronson, who has just published his latest book So You've Been Publicly Shamed, tells us about people who have suffered persistent online abuse and gives advice on what to do if you become the target of trolls. 

Also, the BBC's economics correspondent Robert Peston speaks about his experience of being abused online and how he dealt with it. Plus, we get a profile of who is likely to engage in trolling from London-based psychotherapist Dr Aaron Balick, while Claire Hardaker, linguisitics professor at Lancaster University, assesses whether Twitter's latest attempt to clamp down on online abuse is likely to be effective.

(Photo: Twitter on smartphone, Credit: Damien Meyer/AFP/Getty Images)

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