How would you handle this

[Big money]

I have a close buddy who has been trolled on the internet for a few years now.Comes to be that that it is one person trolling.He has been trying to destroy his name and person all over the net.With a help of an investigator.He has the persons name - phone number - address and email.Come out he is a public official and an city attorney.Very well to do financially and a public figure.Seems like he has a pass time of trolling.How would you handle this ?

 

[MattF]

Gather all evidence and hand it to the local cyber crimes authorities...but that's just good me. Bad me would confront him, knock him out and break all of his fingers.

[DaveP043]

You could also consider giving copies of the evidence to a local news outlet, either a newspaper or TV station.  Exposing the dark side of public officials gets attention for the media outlet, which is what the want, but it should also get the trolling stopped, which is what you want.

[Mr. 82]

I'd have to get more specific information regarding what you consider "trolling"?  Because if it's illegal (libel), and you have it in writing, and can prove that this public official is intentionally libeling him, you can sue someone for that, especially with regards to reputation, etc.  Libel is hard to prove, because you literally have to prove that the libel cost your friend financially, or in other tangible ways that can be measured (lost job, lost friends, lost whatever publicly).

If people can lose jobs over posts on Facebook and Twitter, or wherever on social media, it shouldn't be too hard to get this guy to stop doing this.

All that said, I would take a Biblical approach to this situation.  First, you confront the person doing this and see what their response is.  If they are contrite and repentant, I leave it at that.  However, if they refuse to back down, then I bring in several other people and confront him that way.  If a group of people doesn't change his behavior, then I seek legal action and other public methods to stop the trolling.  Being a public figure works both ways.  While you have a lot of power, you can lose it very quickly if you abuse it, especially with hard evidence.

[StrokerAce]

I wonder if there's a way to flip it around ... just reach out to the guy and ask him about his life and family and try to turn an enemy into a friend....or at least an acquaintance.

[Big money]

Reminds me of a real posters 

[SteddyGolf]

If you go into Facebook/Instagram and search my name, Timothy Sloan, you’ll find no less than 25 accounts using my name and pictures used to maintain fake accounts. When I first discovered this I called every authority I could to seek help to include the owners of FB. Lots of sympathy but absolutely no help. Seems this problem is huge and it extends well beyond the US borders.

 

How have I addressed it? At first I felt incredibly violated and obsessed over finding the fake profiles then doing everything I could to shut them down. It simply became overwhelming. I couldn’t keep up. They went from using my name and pics along with some pretty imaginative life stories to using the later two with different variations of my name. Long story short I gave up trying.

 

To this day I receive emails and text messages from all sorts of people who claimed to have spoken to me.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

 

[Big money]

On 1/10/2019 at 10:28 AM, SteddyGolf said:

If you go into Facebook/Instagram and search my name, Timothy Sloan, you’ll find no less than 25 accounts using my name and pictures used to maintain fake accounts. When I first discovered this I called every authority I could to seek help to include the owners of FB. Lots of sympathy but absolutely no help. Seems this problem is huge and it extends well beyond the US borders.

 

How have I addressed it? At first I felt incredibly violated and obsessed over finding the fake profiles then doing everything I could to shut them down. It simply became overwhelming. I couldn’t keep up. They went from using my name and pics along with some pretty imaginative life stories to using the later two with different variations of my name. Long story short I gave up trying.

 

To this day I receive emails and text messages from all sorts of people who claimed to have spoken to me.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using MyGolfSpy

 

We have a lady we hired a few years back that was completely slaughtered on the net. An angry ex and his family. On revenge websites, posts you name it. She is a darn good worker and a great hire. Feel terrible for her really. After this hire our head of HR said it is the last time they research anyone on the net before hiring. The internet is getting worse and incidents like this are happening more and more.It almost needs to be regulated or let the people regulate what can be shown and what can’t. It’s getting to the point where I believe very little of what I read on it anymore.

As far as the OP, if I knew who the person was it would be a bad day for them.I would personally find them and pummel them into submission. That would be my idea of revenge. 

[tony@CIC]

We have a lady we hired a few years back that was completely slaughtered on the net. An angry ex and his family. On revenge websites, posts you name it. She is a darn good worker and a great hire. Feel terrible for her really. After this hire our head of HR said it is the last time they research anyone on the net before hiring. The internet is getting worse and incidents like this are happening more and more.It almost needs to be regulated or let the people regulate what can be shown and what can’t. It’s getting to the point where I believe very little of what I read on it anymore.
As far as the OP, if I knew who the person was it would be a bad day for them.I would personally find them and pummel them into submission. That would be my idea of revenge. 

All the more to have an anonymous presence on social media.


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[robertson153]

All the more to have an anonymous presence on social media.


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Or as I like to do, have NO presence what so ever (except for here of course)


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[Larryd3]

I like the suggestion above about contacting your local news people and see if they’d like the story.  Best wishes

[Mr. 82]

On 1/11/2019 at 4:39 PM, tony@CIC said:

All the more to have an anonymous presence on social media.


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How about NO presence on social media.  Frankly, I have yet to find one positive thing that comes from posting on Twitter.  I lost count of the number of people who have lost jobs and ruined their lives over Facebook and twitter posts, but I have yet to see anything positive come out of social media.  And Instagram is the king of narcissism.  How self-conscious and self-absorbed do you have to be to continually broadcast your every move and activity to the world online?  Since I'm not on Facebook anymore, my wife tells me about some of her friends who literally post a selfie of themselves at least once a day.  Granted, we're talking women here, but I think some of these women need the constant feedback and adoration of the online community to validate their lives through their looks.  But me?  I don't need anyone to tell me that the ugly lives here.  I also don't like scaring anyone with this ugly mug.  Selfies are for the Paulina Gretzkys of the world.

[MattF]

14 hours ago, GSwag said:

Selfies are for the Paulina Gretzkys of the world.

I don't know mate, whack on some lipstick and a small tight dress and let us judge!