The battle against internet trolls shows that a compelling story will always beat cold, hard facts

The fightback against online abuse reminds me of the screenwriters’ adage: no villain knows he’s the villain. He thinks he’s the hero in a different film. So if you want to fight trolls, you have to counter the narrative they are pushing about what trolling is.

By Helen Lewis

In 2007, a computer programmer called Kathy Sierra “left the internet”. She had suffered a campaign of harassment that included threats accompanied by photos of corpses, and the publication of details such as her social security number and address. She deleted her blog, cancelled her speaking engagements and withdrew from every open forum.

By the time I started writing about trolling, Sierra was long gone. She was an internet ghost, a story to scare children with (particularly if they were female). She had done exactly what many well-intentioned readers have urged those who suffer internet abuse to do: she moved her life offline.