The strange and horrible breed of the Twitter trolls

Twitter trolls are a strange breed.

Last week, they decided to target Judy Finnigan’s daughter Chloe, 27, with rape threats after Judy spoke about footballer Ched Evans on Loose Women. I don’t for a moment think Judy was trying to defend rape.

I think she was expressing her opinion about whether or not convicted rapist Evans should be allowed to return to the sport after serving a two-and-a-half year prison sentence for the crime.

There’s a world of difference between the two trains of thought. But enraged Twitter trolls failed to notice that and lambasted Judy with rape threats against her daughter. So far, so stupidly predictable.

This free-flowing anger that is so frequently expressed on Twitter and Facebook is frightening. Reason goes out the window and somehow it’s acceptable to hit back at people with threats of violence.

Now Chloe’s father Richard Madeley has entered the fray and said he will call in the police on those who harass his daughter.

Social media is a great forum for expressing thoughts and feelings on many issues but I just wonder why disagreeing with someone’s viewpoint needs to lead to so much aggression.

Judy has already apologised if her remarks offended anyone and explained that she was talking about how people who have committed a crime are accepted back into society. But the hate-police Twitter trolls don’t get that.

Everything is black or white. No shades of grey are tolerated. Free speech is one of the most cherished attributes of our society a triumph of our democracy. But the stream of vitriol which spews out online at times is corrosive.

People feel threatened and hurt by comments. Vulnerable teens are bullied by destructive jibes.

That’s why parents need to supervise their children’s use of it carefully. Very often, Twitter users post under made-up names, making it hard to trace them.

Used properly, social media is an asset to society. It opens windows to the world. It can be used for so many positive things sharing humour, starting protest movements, campaigning for good causes like the Ice Bucket Challenge.

But it is not a vehicle for harassment and abuse. And anyone who uses it for that purpose has lost the moral argument whatever their point of view.