If you live in Australia, you’ll probably have read in the news regarding Charlotte Dawson‘s recent passing. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Dawson, she was a television personality, a host for Australia’s Next Top Model and other TV shows. Last year, she had a breakdown after copping a large amount of cyber-bullying on Twitter. She retweeted a lot of terrible comments about her on her Twitter account. It got too much for her and she was hospitalised.
On top of that, Dawson had been battling with depression for a long time and tragically, she lost the battle and took her own life.
Now this post isn’t about her. I’m not her fan nor did I watch her shows. But I did see some of the tweets she received during that time and let me tell you, they were vile. Viler than vile, in fact. Whatever she did on the TV shows or outside them, she did not deserve that form of cyber-bullying. No one does.
There’s negative commenting and there’s trolling. Negative comments aren’t nice; hell, who likes being criticised, even if it’s for the smallest of things? Valid criticism or not, they are nowhere near trolling. Trolling is levels beyond negative criticism. It’s constant slamming down of the person, again and again on every single thing that the person does and can even escalate to death threats.
I thought I’ve seen and read my fair share of negative comments on blogs that aren’t just mine. That was until I discovered a whole new world of comments on YouTube.
Oh boy, that’s another kettle of fish right there.
I don’t do videos on YouTube but I highly enjoy watching them. But what I absolutely dislike about YouTube is the whole lot of negative comments people leave. I’m not talking about valid criticism or just not liking the content that was posted. I’ve seen insults on the YouTuber’s looks, body, environment and even about their parents, who have nothing to do with the videos. I’ve even seen comments telling the YouTubers they’re better off dead. I understand a bad video; hey, I just stop watching and move on. But I can never understand what possesses a person to write such horrible things to someone they don’t even know.
Today, I was watching a video on YouTube and I made a mistake by scrolling down the page to look at the comments. There were people who didn’t enjoy the video. Fair enough. One of them was ranting about the video and the person who made the video. A random commenter mentioned that if he/she didn’t like video, why not stop watching and leave. Why bother leaving such horrid comments? That commenter who didn’t enjoy the video replied “because it’s my freedom of speech. If I want to tell that YouTuber her videos are shit, I have the right to tell her that her videos are shit“.
I was gobsmacked.
What happened to that little thing called kindness? Must freedom of speech be abused that way?
If you’re currently being trolled on your blog, YouTube channel or social media, the most important thing is to take control right away. Don’t allow the comments to spiral out of hand. It’s bad for your blog/channel, it’s bad for your readers/viewers and it’s bad for you. Turn comment moderation on and monitor the comments for the next week or so. Do not engage with them. Blog censorship is not something I fully advocate (I don’t like blogs that only allow inundating praises about the blogger and remove the slightest constructive criticisms) but there are times when you need to take full control and cutting out the trolls is one of them.
Block the trolls. Block their nasty behinds from coming back. Block their IP addresses from reaching your blog and block their presence on your social media. I like this image from Jules Lund.
Kindness. It goes a long way, even on the Internet.
For readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467. Talk to someone about it. Please.
Kudos to you my dear! I love this post. Thank you for being so upfront about this topic. Being able to speak openly about this topic will help empower bloggers. All too often many set their manners and kindness for the sake of feeling better about their own insecurities. Thanks for being one of the good guys out there! <3
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Thanks Shalunya. The amount of bullying I see online, especially YouTube is very concerning. It’s worrying to think that it’s okay to be nasty to someone else online simply because it’s their right to do so.
Thank you for writing this, great post.
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My pleasure, Rosie. Glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
Great post. There is so much negativity generally from people who are unhappy with themselves in my experience. I want to be someone who uplifts and encourages. This light you shined on the topic is sorely needed. Thank you and keep up the great blogging!
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Thanks Sherry. Funny enough, I’ve seen back and forth comments from readers in comments on YouTube videos and blog posts on the person who was nasty to the blogger/YouTuber to be unhappy with themselves and that’s why they’re spreading the negativity. That person (not just her, many others too) said that no, they’re not unhappy, they just want to voice their opinion so what’s wrong with that? Sigh. I’m all for voicing opinions but I think there should be a clear line between voicing your opinion and insulting the other person’s mother who has absolutely nothing to do with the blog post or video.
Wow, such an important post. I have been fortunate, so far, but good to know. I don’t do many YouTube videos, but I have never checked the feedback on YT, just on my blog. And I didn’t know there was comment moderation on YouTube. Thank you again, Tine, for all of the important and interesting info you have brought my way!
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Thanks Allison. I’m not sure if there’s comment moderation on YouTube as I don’t use it. But I watched a video a few days ago where the YouTuber mentioned she was going to closed comments to certain videos and moderate them for the rest, so I’m assuming there must be some sort of comment moderation going on.
Great post and really sad what happened to Charlotte. Trolls are horrible, they just do not have any conscience and are actually really sad and miserable people in real life.
You know what, I’m not surprised if trolls are very nice in person. Y’know, repressed personalities and all that.
Great post 🙂 I agree with you …. constructive “feedback” can be very helpful and true, people do and should have the freedom of speech … but … deliberate unkindness and malice are not constructive and in fact, are deliberately aimed to wound. You never know what trials, tribulations and life pressures people are battling behind the scenes. A kind word can mean everything and help someone to keep moving forward. Sadly, we’ve seen the consequences of what an ongoing vitriolic campaign can do to someone who is in a fragile mental state. Blocking the perpetrators is really the only way to deflect their destructive messages – I wish Charlotte had done that.
Personally, I thought it was more destructive than anything when Charlotte Dawson retweeted her trolls. I understand the desire to name and shame them but it got to the point where it got out of hand. I say block like a boss.
A lot of people seem to think that social media is a platform to air their views willy nilly. I think that’s the stupidest thing a person can do because the consequences can be disastrous. Lawsuits anyone?
Some of the comments I see on YouTube really are shocking. There’s a difference between criticism (“I don’t agree with what you’re saying”) and bullying (“You suck”). I’m not sure what I would do if I were in that situation… I like the idea of people being able to comment openly and freely, but if it got out of hand I suppose moderating out truly hateful comments would be reasonable. Where to draw the line between criticism and bullying though? I think it’s hard for some people to not take even the most polite criticism personally…
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No one likes criticism, polite or not, and that’s just human. There are better ways to give constructive negative feedback than just saying “Your video was shit. Unsubscribing”. Those sort of comments irritate me because they didn’t say why it was shit. Was it the lighting? Was it the content? Was it the quality? Was the topic too sensitive? And was it necessary to say “shit”? It doesn’t help the content creator at all.
I didn’t used to watch YouTube videos much until some time last year when I stumbled upon a few vloggers and I got hooked. But my goodness, the comments … they were beyond harsh. There’s this popular tag going around YouTube-land called the “TMI Tag” where one of the questions ask “when was the last time you were insulted?”. Most of the YouTubers said that since they’re on YouTube, they get insulted on a daily basis. Imagine being insulted every single day.
The news about Charlotte made me very sad. I think the internet can be a faceless medium at times and this facilitates the flourishing of the trolls! I agree with your point of view 100% – don’t feed the trolls, people! So far I’ve been lucky on my YT channel (then again, I don’t have many vids on there! ;)) but I have seen some nasty comments too in my time. I’ve noticed IG is really bad for that too.
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Oh yeah, Instagram is getting there too with the nasty trolls. I’ve seen a lot of really bad ones 🙁
This is a great post, thank you. Frankly, I just don’t read comments, unless I know for certain that it’s a safe space. Another blogger I follow, Sarah Rees Brennan, deals with the freedom of speech thing perfectly here: http://sarahreesbrennan.tumblr.com/post/24608770125/no-but-really
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Thanks for sharing the link. I try very hard not to read the comments too but damn, it’s like a car wreck. I shouldn’t see it but I do it anyway >.<
Excellent post Tine, its something I am absolutely TERRIFIED of. On the one hand I feel grown up enough to ignore it, on the other I know it is still hard.
Thats not to say I have been subjected to it, touch wood.
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Thanks Kaye. You know what, no matter how grown up we are, we’d need to be ice or wood to not feel hurt by negative comments, valid or not. I can have 99% of positive comments but I will always dwell on just that 1% of negativity. Sucker for punishment, right?