It started with a comment on the Online Hate Prevention Institute’s Facebook page “Be wary of donating, this is not a registered charity and is probably a scammer.”
That comment is not only untrue, it’s possibly unlawful under libel laws. It leaves people who aren’t already familiar with the charity with a doubt, placing a barrier in front of the charity’s ability to raise donations. True, a person could go and consult the ACNC’s charity register, where they would find this record showing that the Online Hate Prevention Institute is a real charity in good standing, but that takes extra effort.
Facebook have made the process a little easier. The Facebook donate button and charity fundraising campaigns can only be used to raise funds for registered charities. We’ve written about this recently. This means two things for this public:
- You can trust that donations made via Facebook’s charity tools will only be going to registered charities, not scammers
- Anyone suggesting otherwise can be dismissed as a troll
Returning to our troll, we removed his comment and banned him. There is no room on our page for libelous lies that seek to undermine our work.
We also took a look at his Facebook page where we saw this admission to trolling and statement that he is looking for new targets.
Other posts show him proudly associating himself with harmful online culture such as the red-pilling from 4Chan.
We well as proudly expressing the view he doesn’t care what others think. That can be a positive approach when you are ignoring others who are seeking to abuse you, but it is psychopathic when it simply means you don’t care about the harm you cause others.
This last one almost convinced us to just publish this article with his name included. After all, he seems to believe those making false accusations should never be protected from the consequences of their action.
Personally we disagree, we removed his comment within an hour so little harm was done. Publishing a article showing he is a troll (particularly giving he is posting under his real name) could have an impact not only on how people treat him, but potentially also on things like his future employment prospects.
Responses?
Have you seen other charities trolled in a similar way? Do you think online trolls should be named? You can comment in this thread on Facebook.
As a Registered Australian Charity, our work is made possible by donations from the public. Donations can be made on Facebook, via the PayPal Giving Fund Australia or see other ways to donate.