Bullying as a phenomenon is not new. In homes, schools, and communities, people are exposed to one form of bullying or another. While some are bullied verbally, others experience it emotionally or physically. However, the rise of social media has given people the ability to sit anywhere under any identity to attack people, thus ushering the world into the era of cyberbullying.
The act of bullying unfortunately does not happen in a specific demographic or age group. While children are often the easiest targets to pick on, the era of cyberbullying has opened the floodgates, leaving anyone and everyone at the mercy of cyberbullies. In today’s social media culture, influencers and creatives often put themselves on the line, echoing thoughts, opinions, and others. While finding yourself in such a position can be rewarding, it also puts a target on your back. Their status attracts trolls and views from anyone with access to the internet. These people troll, harass, and insult these personalities. In some instances, these bullies move from the internet into the real world, where some creatives and influencers are stalked and physically assaulted.
In any proper society, people who engage in such activities should be punished for the trauma, harm, and pain they cause their victims, but more often than not, when such people are reported, their accounts are suspended (which they return shortly by creating new accounts). In cases where lawyers and legal bodies have been involved, some people get justice, while other victims are made to chew the bitter pill because the abusers are not held accountable and made to go free. Thankfully, there are times when these bullies have caused people to lose their jobs, scholarships, and other opportunities because of their actions. In some of the worst cases, some of these trolls are often celebrated by thousands of followers and end up becoming and rebranding as “influencers” themselves. It is often shocking to see brands and personalities associating with known cyberbullies, but then again, what can one do? An excerpt to watch on us: people who harm people emotionally and mentally and drive people into depression are rewarded and celebrated, making them aware of their acts.
There have been people who have shown support for trolls and bullies in one instance or another. While trolling is often welcomed in some circles and demographics on social media, there is always a limit to how far one can go when trolling someone. On football Twitter, for example, trolling teams and players who lose matches or do not play well has become popular. However, there have been times when trolls themselves have called out others for going too far or stepping into unacceptable terror with their words. This raises the question: Is there a universal line where trolling ends and then becomes bullying? Who draws these lines? Who ensures that people do not cross these lines?
The lack of interventions by these platforms to deal with bullies has only made them more prevalent. Platforms like Reddit, Instagram, X (Twitter), and TikTok have become breeding grounds for trolls and bullies to thrive and be rewarded for their actions instead of being punished.
Victims of cyberbullying, unfortunately, have to watch on as their abusers walk around freely because law enforcement agencies have sometimes expressed a lack of resources to investigate these cases. These loopholes have encouraged people to hide behind burners and anonymous accounts to commit these offences without having to face any consequences. Despite interventions, education, and campaigns by individuals and organizations to discourage and highlight the effects of cyberbullying, the fight against cyberbullying seems to be a struggle.
In our bid to highlight these effects while showing disturbing acts of cyberbullying, we speak to some individuals who are open about their experiences with cyberbullying, the effects, and how they deal with them. We also speak to a lawyer who shares some insights as far as legal elements are concerned.
The self-doubts, to be honest. You have to constantly doubt who you are as a person because somebody somewhere is trying to denigrate you. Having to repeatedly question yourself and your existence is a chore, and it’s a very painful thing to deal with. You could be the most confident and most self-assured person in the world, but if you’re constantly being targeted or cyberbullied, the doubts would start to creep in.
Due to the nature of my experience with cyberbullying, it’s usually not just one person piling on me but several people, usually at once. I have retorted back to some, and replied to some, but never really confronted any in person, as some of them don’t even live in the capital, making it hard to track them down and have a face-to-face confrontation. As for online confrontations, I’ve had a couple. One in particular, after a lot of back and forth, mentioned that they did it because everybody seemed to be doing it. This is insane because it makes no sense how basic human decency flies out the window once people realise you’re a free game for bullying due to the actions of others.
I tried. We had to create a report to the cyberbullying unit, and all they told me was to block the perpetrators, as that’s how social media is. Another reason I had to stop was, as I said, the person was an anonymous account. There was no personal information, and neither were there pictures on the person’s account, they deactivated me once they realised I was going to pursue legal action, so it kind of stopped the lawyer and me in our tracks.
It honestly used to be my mental health, but I think I’ve grown tougher skin over the years; I simply cannot be fazed. Right now, it’s mainly how it affects the people around me because, unfortunately, people on the internet have no boundaries and tend to not only disrespect me but also my family, my partner, and my loved ones. I’ve learned to not engage, so it dies out, but they can have debates about me, my life, and more for days. I’ve had people online come for my mother on 2 different occasions—when I spoke about my absent father and when I got cheated on by my ex-partner. For the most ridiculous reasons. The recent one was because I refused to put my partner’s face online, so the masses concluded that it was okay to disrespect him. I really can’t wrap my head around it and can’t seem to find the correlation, but hey…
Lool, the “bullies” are usually very timid in person and try to be friendly with me for some reason. They always claim what they are on social media isn’t what they are in real life, which I disagree with. I have never confronted anyone personally, as they always make the first friendly move. I think I’ve grown to understand that no matter what I do or say, the internet will always have something negative to say, so I don’t bother paying attention to any of that anymore.
I haven’t taken any legal action against anyone yet, but maybe I should. I see a lot of allegations online about me each day, and it’s all so ridiculous. People I have never met claim they know me and my family, people telling the most random stories about me, etc. Does it ever end?
Afia Blue:
As a lawyer, people have reached out to me concerning cyberbullying and being victims of such. My experience dealing with such cases is that more often than not, lies are being spread about them, so we use the defamation angle. Our laws don’t explicitly tackle cyberbullying. What we have are laws that deal with spreading misinformation and posting sexual content of people without consent. Eg., if someone threatens to post your sexual videos or pictures, if someone posts indecent pictures of children, etc.
When it comes to people insulting you on social media, there are hardly any real legal remedies for you unless you can show the court that they were defamatory. Take, for example, you meet someone who abuses you verbally; the court can’t do anything about it.
The insult must be couched in a way that it propagates falsehoods about you, and the said falsehood must have had a damaging repercussion on you or your reputation. When that happens, you can sue the person for defamation. When you sue for defamation, you can also ask for damages for cyberbullying. I.e., if the cyberbullying caused you to maybe get depressed and you went to the hospital and spent money on bills.
However, in the course of cyberbullying, if a crime or an intention to commit one is expressed by the bully, you can also report them. For example, if someone says, “Kwasia, I will find you and slap you.” That’s a threat of harm. So the bullying mustn’t just be mere words; if it has criminal elements to it, you can report it to the police.
Written by Nana Kojo Mula.
