You’re in a position where the demands of friendship and morality may come apart, advises Eleanor Gordon-Smith
I am worried about an old mate. In person, he is gentle and polite and very kind. He is the kind of person who will drop everything to help out his friends – something I know from personal experience. But online he becomes someone else entirely. I have caught him running “egg” accounts on Twitter in which he anonymously annoys and persistently messages both people he knows and doesn’t know – usually people with a public profile – playing “devil’s advocate” on pet issues. He used to be progressive – even politically active on the left – but is now becoming increasingly absorbed into climate crisis denial and related conspiracy theories circulating in those spaces online. He’s always appreciated a good joke, but now he’s harassing people, and it’s impossible to tell which of his personalities is the real one. It’s quite distressing. What can I do?
It’s a very strange feeling to realise you might not know as much of your friend as you thought you did. Especially today, when the cesspool of online communities means your friend could become a fully fledged harasser before you discover it.
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