ohver the weekend, I assumed that Jay Slater, the teenager who disappeared while on holiday in Tenerife, must have been found safe and sound. This was the only explanation, I reasoned, for the plethora of flippant comments – ranging from gently mocking to downright nasty – flooding social media.
“Did the search party looking for Jay Slater try to shout 'Auto Glass Repair'? If he's around, he'll yell, 'Replace the car windows,'” one of them said.
“If #JaySlater has been in the team then he will have a dose of hunger. Has anyone thought about shouting 'Domino hoh hoo' to the valley?,” said another.
“I'm sick and tired of hearing about that evil bastard who went missing in Tenerife. Harry Kane and Phil Foden have been missing since June 16 and no one has set up a GoFundMe to find them,” reads one particularly scathing offer. (I'm loathe to even share it here, except to demonstrate how terribly low the level of discourse has fallen.)
When I realized that, in fact, Slater's whereabouts remained unknown after more than seven days, and that his loved ones are still, naturally, sick with worry after his last message last Monday confirmed that he was missing and alone in the mountains, almost without phone battery and without water. I felt bad too. The callousness and cruelty defied understanding. Why were people online treating this whole thing as one big joke? What the hell happened to our collective compassion?
The 19-year-old's mother, Debbie Duncan, has also not been spared the mockery and anger of the Internet. After every mother's worst nightmare, her every word has been dissected and analyzed, her every facial expression unpicked and judged by a crowd of strangers.
A sample tweet: “Sorry man but it's so funny that Jay Slater's mom flew to Tenerife 'to help search for him' and immediately after landing said yeah, I'm not actually going to help in the search because I'm not I do. I want to be the one who finds it. “That, love, is a vacation.”
Many internet users have taken to a GoFundMe page set up by Slater's family, which has currently raised more than £32,000. It didn't matter that Duncan had made it clear that no money had yet been withdrawn and that the family were “currently covering expenses ourselves, such as the trip to Tenerife and accommodation.” He added: “Funds will remain held on GoFundMe until we post a further update on this page.”
The court of public opinion had already arrived at its own interpretation of events to fit a well-worn narrative: Slater was a young man unworthy of our sympathy, clearly involved in drugs or other dubious dealings; His family was staunch opportunists and used the hellish situation to make quick money.
The trolling became so intense that a distraught Duncan was forced to respond, addressing members of a Facebook group in which endless rumors and outlandish theories about Slater's disappearance have been circulating frantically since he disappeared in the Canary Islands. after the NRG music festival.
“All your comments really sadden me. It sounds like you are very concerned about this GoFundMe page,” she wrote. “I really hope I don't take my son home in a body bag.”
Because that is the stark and tragic reality of the situation; After this period of time, there is a good chance that Slater will not be found alive. And a worrying majority of viewers seem to have completely tuned out the fact that this story involves real people with real lives and real emotions.
A worrying majority of viewers seem to have completely tuned out the fact that this story involves real people with real lives.
“I really can't believe the British public won't support me in my quest to find Jay,” his mother added. “This can happen to any of you one day. Very disappointed for all of you.”
It's “depressing, but not surprising, that people are trolling Jay Slater's mother,” according to Ginger Gorman, global cyberhate expert and author of the best-selling book, troll hunt.
He explains that the psychological profile of “predatory trolls” (people who use digital devices to inflict harm in real life) is that of sadists. “They like to hurt you and, strangely enough, they feel good about themselves when they do it,” he says. “It gives them a perverse sense of power.” By finding victims' weaknesses and exploiting them, this type of troll would see Duncan as an easy target. “He's heartbroken,” Gorman says. “So, it's actually devastatingly predictable that this is the mechanism by which she would be targeted by predatory trolls. “Trolls often use people’s children as their vulnerability.”
Gorman's research has also shown that predatory trolls often use a hot news story to gain attention, a trait shared by players in the “professional” troll business: those who have learned to monetize outrage and use hate speech to financial gain.
And online trolling and harassment is a “major and growing problem”, says Christine Pratt, founder of The National Bullying Helpline, so much so that the charity recently hired the divisive “villain” of the second as an ambassador. series of BBC One reality show The traitors, Paul Gorton, who experienced trolling on social media after the show aired. “Bullies harass because they can,” he adds. “In the UK we need to start seeing prosecutions; The police must take action against trolls. “We can’t jail them all or take them all to court, but at worst, prosecuting or suing trolls would act as a deterrent.”
But many people who would never consider themselves trolls in the traditional sense have begun to get involved in the online conversation when it comes to stories with an element of mystery. We saw it in the case of Nicola Bulley, who disappeared while walking his dog in January 2023; In the two weeks leading up to the discovery of his body and the subsequent conclusion that he died of natural causes, Internet viewers generated a series of wild theories in a way that seemed increasingly intrusive and uncomfortable.
We saw it with the quick and ruthless online search for the real-life Martha after the Netflix show. baby reindeer became an overnight sensation; Despite her character's portrayal of an incredibly damaged and vulnerable woman accused of stalking, viewers tracked and harassed her mercilessly on social media.
Inspired by true crime podcasts and encouraged by like-minded online communities, a large number of civilians quickly got caught up in the “thrill” of each of these cases, seemingly forgetting the seriousness of the situations in their eagerness to play. to the armchair detective.
People may start out feeling genuinely concerned about the situation and wanting to help, but for them it becomes a game.
Dr. Sara Polak
“It's the kind of thing that people want to get involved with; they don't want to be spectators,” says Dr. Sara Polak, an academic and co-author, with Dr. Daniel Trottier, of the book. Violence and trolling on social media: History, affect, and effects of online vitriol. “People may start out feeling genuinely concerned about the situation and wanting to help, but for them it becomes a game. Social media and the Internet provide the opportunity to research online, search for clues, say your two cents and share your theories; It is a game to entertain.”
This social media research leads to “apophenia,” Polak says. The term found in game design refers to a phenomenon in virtual reality or escape room games in which things that people interpret as clues turn out to be meaningless. In the world of the digital detective apophenia abounds; We are “pattern-seeking animals” and “we see patterns everywhere,” Polak says. And our confirmation bias means that once a conclusion has been reached, no matter how false, we detect “evidence” to support our opinions (and filter out facts that don't fit). “They find a trail that leads somewhere and they really feel like they're onto something, because it resonates with familiar cultural tropes; for example, in the case of Jay Slater, that 19-year-olds shouldn't be trusted.”
The broadening of the demographic that feels it has the right or even the duty to get involved in these cases has become much more common in recent years, in part accelerated by Internet shutdowns, says Dr. Trottier: “The Internet became in our window to the world.” It went hand in hand with a sense of lack of control in an increasingly broad and erratic panorama, characterized by grievances that frightened people, ranging from a tight labor market to inflationary contraction; it was hand in hand with a growing skepticism towards the mainstream media, “Investigate” has become the common battle cry of conspiracy forums such as QAnon and 4Chan Become an armchair detective and question the motivations behind, for example, from a grieving family's GoFundMe page, instead of empathizing with them, it allows people to feel like they're doing just that.
So have we reached peak online cruelty? Unfortunately, it seems unlikely, according to Dr. Trottier. “It's bad, and this most recent case is starting to look like an episode of black mirror – but it can always get worse,” he warns. Think about AI in the hands of predatory trolls; Think about the online tools used to punish women in Russia who were caught fraternizing with the “wrong” kind of man.
The National Bullying Helpline believes the answer is to eradicate online anonymity with an identification system. Gorman is an advocate for a legislated duty of care, so that social media platforms themselves are responsible for keeping users safe rather than monetizing vitriol.
In the meantime, it's worth keeping Gorman's parting words in mind before sharing your opinion online, whether it's an offhand joke, a glib comment, or a well-intentioned theory based on fundamentally limited research: “Jay's parents deserve love and support. Can you imagine if this was your child? As a mother, I fear the worst but hope for the best.”
