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I am not an expert and not one to
comment on the Madeleine McCann story. I
have my own opinions which I keep mainly
to myself, but that doesn't mean one day
I won't want to share those opinions
with other people. If I go on to do that
and they don't meet the standard that
others expect, do I become a troll? The
term has almost become useless.
Urban Dictionary - the online world's
collection of internet terms and lingo
has 'troll' listed as meaning the
following: "One who posts a deliberately
provocative message to a newsgroup or
message board with the intention of
causing maximum disruption and
argument". In my view, this wasn't
sweepyface's aim.
Not once did Brenda put out a message
containing physical threats of violence,
nor did she laugh at the McCann's
expense. Through thousands of tweets she
didn't even do so much as swear more
than 20 times. She even went so far as
to defend the family against those who
did find humour in their situation - "so
much laughing so little funny". By
poking the hornet's nest so often and
for so long, she did eventually see a
breakthrough, though it wasn't one she
had wanted. When Sky News reporter
Martin Brunt began following her on
Twitter, she sent out her final tweets
before deleting the account altogether.
Now don't get me wrong, Brenda did get
tangled in a whole lot of mud-slinging
that could have found her up to her neck
in legal issues if and when things were
going to be taken further. Cases such as
this one always involve murky water and
if you're willing to go and wade into it
via the web, I believe you should be
willing to talk about it in person. She
was a responsible and grown adult who
knew what she was doing. Of this there
is no denying.
Her actions meant that Martin Brunt
turned up at Brenda's doorstep and
repeatedly asked questions she didn't
want to answer at that moment. She was
taken by surprise. Repeating that she
was going out with a friend and replying
"No" when asked if Martin could speak to
her about her Twitter account, she was
followed right up to her car and the
questions continued to come until she
got into the vehicle. She later invited
the team inside and is reported to have
explained her reasoning for the tweets
off-camera, hoping that she hadn't
broken the law.
It was the Daily Mail who took the
chance on October 2 to "unmask" Brenda -
using her full name - as one of many
'trolls' who hurl "vile" abuse at the
McCann family. Though they do make sure
they include sentences that show what
she did and didn't tweet, they tend to
tar her with the same brush they're
using against anonymous users who have
threatened and even posted sexually
explicit messages online about the
family. Not enough is done to
distinguish between Brenda's messages
and those of others. This was also the
date that the Sky News footage was
aired.
A torrent of abuse was then hurled at
Brenda - death threats, calls for her to
be raped and abused, from supporters of
the McCann family who were unhappy with
her viewpoint. Will Scotland Yard be
investigating these tweets? They have so
far mostly gone unreported, despite
being on a much larger scale of evil
intent than Brenda's ever were. |
