Troll hunting: forum abuse and the law
Submitted by Alasdair Taylor on Thu, 26/07/2012 - 13:51A troll is defined in the Urban Dictionary as "one who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument". The etymology seems to be disputed. My preferred explanation is that the usage comes - via the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban - from fishing, where trolling is the practice of trailing a baited line behind a moving boat, as in "trolling for mackerel".
Legal area:
criminal law
defamation law
internet law