Stopping trolls from making life miserable is nearly impossible

The Internet can be a cruel place depending on who you ask.

With the click of a button, a person can be trolled online and cyber-harassed through social media.

Take for instance Progress Leadership Alliance of Nevada, which is constantly bombarded with threats and harassment online.

"We have people who comment on our Facebook group about us being communists," says Laura Martin, communications director for the organization. "We have gotten racist comments. People have called us the antichrist."

On a personal level, Astrid Silva, a local immigration activist with the alliance who is also undocumented, has received a lot of comments through social media attacking her.

Usually, she just lets the attacks roll off her shoulders.

The worst was a troll who not only continued to harass her on Twitter, but also created a YouTube channel in which he read and responded to her tweets.

"These videos were hours long," Silva says.

She consulted with friends in the legal community and even talked to local police only to find out there was little she could do.

"Metro said in order to do anything, I would need the guy's full name and address," she says. "All I had was a Twitter handle."

It's pretty common for people to be stuck when it comes to fighting Internet harassment and trolling.

Mitch Langberg, an attorney at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, says Internet trolling and cyber harassment is a balancing act between respecting the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech and people's right to be free from bullying and harassment.

Generally speaking, what people put out on the Internet is protected by the First Amendment. Trolls, people who deliberately make negative, abusive comments for the purpose of upsetting people and attracting attention, find the Internet a perfect place for their anonymous vitriol.

"The Internet is like the Wild, Wild West," he says. "It might be annoying or cause you a great inconvenience, but as long as (trolling) doesn't cross any lines, it's protected."

Langberg says the line it crosses from trolling to harassment, in which people can take action, is when it is deemed a credible threat and a person is looking to cause bodily harm.

But even the realm of a credible threat is difficult to determine.

"For example, someone once tweeted for everyone to call a sheriff's department to tie up all the lines," he says.

Though that person was sought for prosecution, the lawsuit didn't go anywhere since there was no imminent threat.

When it comes to defamation, Langberg says people can say what they want.

If statements are proven to be false, the person can be litigated.

"False speech isn't protected by the First Amendment," he says. "So if you want to say something, you must be willing to pay the consequences."

If a person is found guilty, he may be forced to pay damages, but Langberg says the court still can't make him take down the post.

Trying to regulate and police the Internet has been tricky, Langberg says.

"If I went down to The Boulevard Mall and a person started walking up and down the street with a sign that says, "Mitch is fat, ugly and anyone who dates him is crazy," I couldn't really do anything," he says. "That's doesn't change on the digital world."

From cyber-harassment to trolling, some states have tried to take up matters.

"States pass these laws, which vary state to state," he says.

Then, state Supreme Courts decide whether certain laws are even constitutional.

"One day, the Supreme Court (of the United States) is going to have to decide this," Langberg says.

Silva says she could have filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission since the man harassing her was making videos on YouTube.

She could even encourage friends to file enough complaints on the website that the user gets banned.

"But YouTube is a free site," she says. "He could just open another one."

She decided, despite a fear lingering in the back of her mind, to not respond to him anymore.

Whether it's an attack on a news article or a comment on a Facebook or Twitter post, Dr. Katherine Hertlein, a professor with the marriage and family therapy program at UNLV, says there is no use in responding.

She adds people shouldn't feel guilty about feeling mad or upset about wanting to respond to a post.

"The people on the receiving end have to recognize that feeling was manufactured by the person," she says. "It was set up to get you to respond. Part of the thrill is to get you to react."

Hertlein says there are many factors to why there are Internet trolls.

She adds articles have been published that looked at the personalities of some people who troll.

"Studies show there is a correlation between sadists, narcissists and psychopaths and Internet trollers," she says. "But I find it hard to believe that the only people doing the trolling do it because they have a personality disorder. We are more complex than that."

Hertlein says the anonymity provided by the Internet also encourages people to flood comments sections of articles and blogs with their opinions.

"The Internet allows them to participate in anti-normative behavior," she adds.

In the end, Silva didn't file a complaint. She was too worried how the person harassing her might react.

"It's disheartening to know there isn't a lot of things you can do," she says. "There aren't a lot of places you can go."

To file complaints with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, visit ic3.gov.

Contact reporter Michael Lyle at mlyle@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5201. Follow @mjlyle on Twitter.