RIP trolls

[DrLeftover]

August 12, 2013

As they prepared to bury their 15-year-old son, John and Kathleen Kocher received a call from a nephew warning them not to go on the Internet.

A Facebook memorial page dedicated to Matthew Kocher, who drowned July 27 in Lake Michigan, had attracted a group of Internet vandals who mocked the Tinley Park couple's only child, posting photos of people drowning with taunting comments superimposed over the images.

One photo showed a submerged person's hand breaking through the water with text reading "LOL u drowned you fail at being a fish," according to a screen grab of the page shared with the Tribune after the post was removed.

"I was very angry right away, and then I said, 'Well, these are some dirtbags,'" John Kocher said. "How could they possibly want to do that? How could somebody want to be so evil, so vile?"

What the Kocher family experienced is known as RIP trolling, in which online users called trolls, post offensive comments and images on social media sites that are intended to memorialize the deceased. It's a variation of trolling, or posting an extreme viewpoint or rude comment simply to get a reaction.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/suburbs/tinley_park/ct-met-rip-trolling-20130812,0,670356.story

 

[Jazzy]

Couldn't read the whole article:

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Even though I couldn't read the article, these people who do this are sick, heartless and vile!

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

That is horrible! Some people are complete sociopaths and have no remorse for the horrible things they do.

 

[Bluezone777]

I just clicked the link and apparently I can read the whole article. You might want to try again to see if it works now.

Anyway, people reveal who they truly are once they believe that they are anonymous. Anonymity removes accountability and for some people it's the only thing that keeps them from becoming a depraved lunatic who just never acted on that impulse. Who knows how many of these kind of people you pass every day and just don't know it? Makes you wonder if you really know who you are around whether it be work, school or out on the town?

 

[Sinon]

Eh, it's the internet. If I said I was surprised, I'd be lying.