Ask.fm advertisers to quit site in cyberbullying row (after the death of bullied 14-year-old)

[Turborama]

Source: BBC

Several large companies are among those pulling adverts from social media website ask.fm, after the death of a teenager who was bullied online.

The Sun newspaper, EDF, BT and optical retailer Specsavers are among those distancing themselves from the site.

Ask.fm has issued an open letter saying it does not condone bullying of any kind on its site.

The controversy comes after the death of bullied 14-year-old Hannah Smith from Leicestershire.


Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23612544

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Ask.fm owners offer to name anonymous trolls

By Hayley Dixon 11:56PM BST 08 Aug 2013

As the backlash continues to grow, Latvian millionaires Mark and Ilja Terebin, who set up ask.fm three years ago, broke their silence and promised to hand over the details of anonymous users and co-operate with the police.

Pressure has been mounting on the brothers since Hannah Smith, 14, took her own life last week after being bullied on the site. A string of major companies have since withdrawn advertising from ask.fm.

The mob mentality of trolling was also revealed when trolls on US website thousands of miles from Hannah’s home in Lutterworth were found to have plotted together to target her grieving friends and family.

On 4 Chan, one of the world’s biggest chat forums, a link was posted to Hannah’s Facebook tribute page accompanied by a suggestion that “we could make some people butthurt” on any RIP site.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10232445/Ask.fm-owners-offer-to-name-anonymous-trolls.html


RIP Hannah

[Ken Burch]

1. We will remember you, Hannah-your misery will not be in vain.

What was done to you will drive people of good will to help make a world where, someday, no one will made to feel the horrific mental suffering that drove your life to an early end.

You didn't kill yourself-the cyberbullies killed you. And your memory will live on in the struggle to make the world we need.

And...

You others...

Those of you who felt you had nothing better to do than to use the anonymity of the Internet to make a young woman who had done nothing to and would never have done anything to you come to the conclusion that she was nothing and her life was not worth living,

And those of you who, worse even than those who drove this young woman to an early grave, then went on to plot to torment Hannah's grieving family in depths of their pain

We will remember YOU, too-and all that you did.

We will take revenge in the name of Hannah's memory...in the name of that beautiful, trusting smile that you forever wiped away.

No one will hunt you down.

No one will physically hurt you.

Perhaps no one will even hurt your feelings(assuming you have any).

But there will be revenge.

For Hannah, and all the others whose names we don't know.

That revenge will be to create a world where your dehumanizing notions of "fun", your soul-destroying cruelty, and your lethal sense of entitlement will, finally, be made to vanish. It may take months, years, decades, but we will find the antidote to the poison you spread.

The human race will find a way to be free of all that you stand for, even as you refuse to use your real names when you stand for it.

Know this.

[millennialmax]

2. More bad than good comes from anonymity.

Glad to hear justice might be served.

[freshwest]

3. Anyone smart enough to post online should have known this truth long ago:

In an open letter the Terebin brothers condemned bullying, adding: “Although it is possible to post anonymously to the site, we would like to reassure parents that in almost all cases it is possible for Ask.fm to identify users – through IP technology, everything on the internet is traceable – and in extreme circumstances such as those we’ve experienced this week we work through existing legal frameworks to ensure this information is accessible to the appropriate legal authorities.”

Anyone with less tech knowledge than that, and who thinks they have the right to indulge carrying out attacks on others, deserves what's coming to them. I'm not going cry about their right to privately mess with people online anymore than I'd cry about a rapist being caught on tape.



This is basic, living in the world stuff. Like don't run over the kid next door, don't string up the neighbor's cat, don't fire off a gun recklessly, don't beat, rape or rob people.

It's the criminal mind that says they 'should have known better' to talk online and listen to the predators, the bullies, whatever. These freaks make a game out of emotionally damaging others that they know are vulnerable, just like a those who pick a victim on the street. Then they blame the victim they preyed upon for what they did.

People are tired of psychopathic shit.

[Mojorabbit]

4. I can't understand why anyone would do such a thing. nt

[Brigid]

5. I don't mean to be unsympathetic to Hannah . . .

Or to her family and friends.But I just cannot imagine getting so upset over what is said online that I I would be driven to suicide. I also don't understand why someone would waste their time being a cyberbully. I guess I am just getting old.