The Troll Issue: When celebrities become cyber casualties

SINGAPORE — Ever since the first “You suck!” was hurled at Julius Caesar, public figures have been getting flak. Making fun of celebrities is a time-honoured hobby. Because they’re so much richer, better-looking and more successful than we are, it kind of feels like they are fair game.

It’s easy to forget they are people, too — who may or may not be even more susceptible to insecurity and self-doubt than we ourselves are.

When you have 50 million Twitter followers hanging onto your every 140 characters like Justin Bieber does, well, you can kind of understand why The Bieb’s life has become increasingly tumultuous. Not all of those 50 million people around the world love him all of the time, and they won’t hesitate to offer up their non-sugar-coated opinions of him — in real time.

Celebrities can also be casualties of their own fans’ misguided love, as when camps of fans start Twitter wars. Apparently, if you are a fan of Taylor Swift, for example, you have to show your loyalty to her by slinging mud at, say, Selena Gomez (and vice versa). This has led Miley Cyrus to tweet: “Every day someone with a Swift or Gomez in there name wishes terrible things upon me (death is popular). Please Smilers don’t ever think somehow you are supporting me by being hateful towards other artists. We are all friends. Why can’t you all be?” (sic).

Some celebrities are not above using Twitter to lash out at other celebrities themselves. Famous celebrity trolls include Adam Levine, who accused Lady Gaga of “recycling old art for a younger generation”; and Amanda Bynes, whose idea of constructive criticism has been to call everyone from Kanye West to Rihanna “ugly”.

The effects of online trolling on celebrities can be just as devastating as they are on anyone else. In August 2012, LeAnn Rimes checked into rehab, one of her issues being cyber bullying via Twitter. In the same year, the birth of singer Adele’s baby was met with nasty comments and death threats on Twitter.

Online abuse going terribly wrong is sadly common among South Korean celebrities in particular. A country with more than one mobile phone per user, it’s where netizens had enough power to drive Jay Park out of the country and out of a job in 2009 over old MySpace comments. In 2007, singer U;Nee, who had faced online criticism for her plastic surgery procedures, hanged herself. Later that year, Rooftop Room Cat actress Jeong Da Bin did the same; she too suffered from depression and dealt with online attacks about her physical appearance. In 2008, Choi Jin Sil, who had been nicknamed “the nation’s actress”, took her own life — also by hanging — after rumours circulated online that she had been involved in the suicide of actor Ahn Jae Hwan. Her death spurred the South Korean government to push for more online regulation.