YouTube, Where the Internet Trolls Hang Out.

Internet trolls are not things that I have ever really had to deal with, nor that I have given much thought to. I have seen a lot in the media about cyberbullying, as I am sure everyone has. Fortunately, I have never been the victim of any such attack, until I recently encountered a nasty little internet troll on YouTube.

I have been active on the likes of Instagram, Flickr and other photography sites for quite a few years and whilst I have read about people being the target of hateful and troll comments on these sites, I have never had an issue. However, once I started to create content on YouTube, I came to find that the platform was a breeding ground for trolls, with YouTube seeimgly letting them carry on as though it was normal.

As troll hangouts go, YouTube appears to be the current number one. Whilst YouTube does not allow nudity on their platform (Instagram and Facebook are more nudity friendly so I am told), they seem to allow things that are far worse than a woman showing a little bit of her bum. This includes accounts created in the names of serial killers, as well as hateful and personally insulting comments on peoples videos. I saw one troll that had made comments on someones vido that called themselves 'womens rights were a mistake'. I was astounded that YouTube and Google allowed someone to call themselves such a thing.

I found one account that was called Dr Harold Shipman, with a matching profile picture of the serial murderer. If you are not familiar with who Dr Shipman was, he was an English GP who was convicted of murdering 15 of his patients back in 2000. However, he could have in fact killed up to 250 people and was one of the most prolific serial killers in modern history. Surely, this should automatically have raised a red flag to YouTube. I only found this person because they posted an insulting comment on someone's YouTube video. I was astounded that the idolisation of serial killers was allowed on the platform.

I have had a YouTube channel since 2016, but until recently, I have not uploaded to it regularly. Last year, after completing my studies, I found myself with more free time and thought that I would try and create more videos to accompany my history and travel blog. Initially, I never appeared in my videos and I would always disable comments. However, after reading about algorithms and all that behind the scenes stuff. It was advised that you allow comments on your videos in order to better connect with your audience.

I started to really enjoy creating videos, it got me out of the house and enabled me to both look at things in more detail as well as researching the subjects, learning along the way. I was happily creating videos, which I thought were just informative videos that people might want to watch. I received a few comments on my blog from readers that said they liked that I also included a video in my posts, which was nice. I also want to point out, I have never received any trolls on my blog. I guess they cannot be bothered to read blogs anymore when they have social media.

Then the inevitable happened, I received my first troll. Now, I’m not sure if I can call this person a troll entirely, it is sometimes hard to differentiate between troll comments and just negative comments and indeed, constructive criticism is important to grow. However, there is a way that people should go about constructively criticising peoples content and name-calling isn't it.

At this time, I had started to allow comments on my videos, which so far had all been fine. However, I made one video where I voiced my opinion and I was quickly called out for doing so. Whilst I recorded and edited my video, I did not really give it much thought about giving out my opinion on such a simple matter. In a nutshell, I said that I would not like to live in the apartment complex that I was walking around as I did not feel safe. A simple comment. However, I received a comment, in which someone called me “narrow-minded” and “sad” and that the camera I used was crappy. I was a little taken back and shocked that someone who did not know me would leave such a comment.

I was not sure how to take the comment. As I noted earlier, I understand that constructive criticism is essential for growth. However, this comment was quite rude, abrupt and was more personal than critical. The confirmation of this was the comment about my crappy camera, which was a GoPro. Perhaps I should have told him to complain to GoPro that he did not like their camera footage.

Regardless of if this person was a serial troll or not, I deleted their comment and blocked them from seeing my content. I personally can not be arsed to argue with people on the internet. I know some people love it. However, I find it bad for your mental health as well as a complete waste of time, especially if you arguing with a troll as that is what they want. They fuel on reactions.

I did feel some element of guilt though, perhaps I should have been more sensitive to others. It never crossed my mind that I would offend or upset someone with my passing comment. I decided to take my video down and learn from my mistake. Never again would I voice any sort of negative opinion on the internet and I changed my YouTube settings so that all comments on my videos were held for me to review.

This encounter made me think twice about if I actually wanted to create content on YouTube as I did not want to be the victim of any sort of hate and I thought, If I were in a shop and said that I didn't like an item of clothing to the person next to me, they call me narrow-minded because I did not share the same taste? Probably not, so why does so much hate happen online and why do platforms not do more to prevent it?

I started to wonder how other creators deal with trolls and negativity, so I did a little research. To my horror, I found out that there is a lot of it about, and most other peoples experiences make mine look like nothing at all.

One of the most horrifying stories that I came across was on the writing platform, Medium in an article written by Ragen Chastain in the publication Better Humans. Ragen notes that there are forums that are dedicated to hating her with one having over 4,000 members. How can so many people be that horrible and how can they all have so much time and energy that they can dedicate it to hating people?

Even before I received my first negative YouTube experience, I recalled two of my favourite YouTubers, The Carpetbagger and Wonderhussy. Both had mentioned in their videos how they had been victims of bullying and harassment. Carpetbagger noted how he received letters sent to his home and Wonderhussy received death threats because she once wore a costume that offended someone. Even more recently, creator Shelby Church stated in one of her vlogs that she was considering stopping comments because people were being so nasty.

I decided to take a look at some YouTube videos to see if I could find some troll comments and the responses by creators. One video posted by Wonderhussy seemed to receive an alarming amount of personal insults. The video is an early one in her YouTube career, in which, she recounts the final moments of James Dean. I was astounded at how horrible people can be whilst they are hidden behind their computer screens, but I thought, good for her though for leaving these comments public so others can see these awful people (I doubt they have used their real names though). Below are just a few of the horrible comments that people wrote. I did not correct the spelling or grammar either:

“You are very full of yourself, I’ll give you that.”

“I don’t like the way you talk about him or the story, the story is wrong, and saying “splattered red,” the way you talk about someone who’s dead is disrespectful. Didn’t enjoy this video. Should’ve been more sincere.”

“How would you know anything about JDs’ sexual orientation? You need to have some respect for the dead. Don’t quit your day job.” and then underneath the same person posted “You’re probably gay!”

“Did you confuse your lipstick with shoe polish ?”

“You talk and act like a real bitch, sorry if the truth hurts!”

“this bitch is so annoying, i couldn’t watch the rest of the video”

“this is disgusting…..and so r u”

“This woman is a complete idiot!”

Indeed, it is up to the creator if they allow these comments to remain on their videos. However, I believe that YouTube needs to do much more to block such comments and accounts in the first place. These comments are completely unacceptable and it looks bad on YouTube and Google for allowing these people to remain on their platform.

On another YouTuber's account that I watch, the creator put a disclaimer on her 'about me' page which states, “A quick message to YouTube trolls: If you post unnecessary, hurtful comments you will be blocked and reported.” Clearly, every creator on the platform has to deal with trolls.

In another Medium article, written by Erica Verrillo in Curiosity Never Killed the Writer, Erica gives advice on how to deal with online trolls and bullies. She advises not to post your opinions on blogs if they are not your own and do not state your thoughts in interviews. Whilst I completely agree, it makes you think, how far should you abstain from your thoughts and opinions. If I say that I don’t like a yellow dress and prefer the red one, would that leave me open to receiving negative comments? In short, yes. It seems that no matter what you put out on the internet, even if I posted a video of fluffy clouds, some troll would be lurking to tell me it was crap or that I had used the wrong camera or the audio was bad. No matter what you post, someone will be lurking to put you down. So what should you do and how should you react?

Some people can handle trolls better than others and some creators love a good argument and will confront them. I personally don't and most of the advice online tells you not to feed the internet trolls as that is what they want. Additionally, bringing yourself down to their level is probably not the best course of action. Negativity feeds negativity and most of the time, ignoring them is the best course of action. Of course, they want a reaction, they want you to spend your time and energy replying to them and inevitably, they want you to stop creating. Because let's face it, the trolls are targeting people that are having some sort of success with what they are doing and they do not like it.

It can be difficult dealing with negativity and unfortunately if you create anything online, you will probably receive some negativity, no matter what you post. The important thing is not to take it personally and do not let it get to you, otherwise, it will take up too much time and energy. As difficult as it is, if the comments are not constructive, just brush them off and move on and do not give them another thought, although that can be easier said than done.

YouTube have a reporting and blocking facility for comments and accounts. I highly advise people to use them so that troll accounts get shut down. However, I personally think that YouTube needs to do much more to make the platform a more positive place for everyone.