From our previous episode, we were looking into the story of cyberbullying and harassment of author, Karoor Soman(കാരൂർ സോമൻ) by 300+ cyberbullies. The coordinated campaign of hate, fake news and online abuse was propagated for making sure Karoor Soman(കാരൂർ സോമൻ), never wrote again.

This is the first problem but before dwelling into this, let’s look at these online cults or abusive gangs that operate on social media and other platforms on the net. Their behaviour is similar to locusts in an online swamp. These locusts can erode away any fine crop you grow. Anyone who wants to look for signs of an online abuse group aka cyberbullies, need to look for patterns and behaviour that is equivalent to cults in real life.

1.      They tend to emphasize “us” vs “them” approach. Classical divide and propagate agenda.

2.      There is usually a leader cyberbully aka online abuse ringleader who will call the major shots on how the victim should be targeted both offline and online.

3.      Any reasoning or disagreement would usually be met with scoff, and tend to be discouraged.

4.      They have a belief that what they are doing is moral- “moral cyberbullies”. These are the ones I generally advise to stay away and ignore as much. They are similar to the right or left wing extremists.

5.      They are attention seeking missiles. Reputation, ego and attention seeking go hand in hand. Look out for them trying to propagate the victim in multiple platforms, both offline and online.

6.      I cannot stop this article without mentioning financial greed or money. Money is a big factor in cyberbullying excluding the sadistic pleasure these people get.

7.      Another easy way to spot a hate campaign is that their members are zombie followers who tend to over exaggerate and devote unprecedented time and energy for the “cause”- in this case to victimize and harass author Karoor Soman(കാരൂർ സോമൻ).

Overall, with time, social media platforms will get better at focusing on the prevention of cyberbullying and saving people from these cyberbully liars and online harassers.

Unless there are really big losers involved, people tend to get on with their lives as there are more important things in life to do than respond to scumbags and online abusers. But I will point out that taking the approach of not responding is not always the best approach. I think a stand or approach should be taken initially so that there is a balanced opinion.

Karoor Soman
കാരൂര്‍ സോമന്‍
#karoorsoman
www.karoorsoman.net