Belle De Jour

Why Trolls Matter

Dr Brooke Magnanti | Posted 09.05.2013 | UK Tech
Dr Brooke Magnanti

So, here's a thought: without the trolls, the internet wouldn't be worth having. No doubt you've heard by now that anonymous commenters who are destroying the web, vicious trolls who are gleefully trampling on the virtual communities that other people have calmly and carefully built from the electronic ground up. And that's where I'd say we have it all wrong. The internet doesn't simply encourage trolls, it thrives precisely because of them.

Hell de Jour: The Sex Trade and its Advocates

Tony Mckenna | Posted 22.09.2012 | UK Politics
Tony Mckenna

In a recent article for the Huffington Post, comedian Chris Dangerfield provides a new spin on an old argument regarding the sex trade. The argument is a familiar one: prostitutes are exploited but hey that's okay - because so are billions of other people. There is, he claims, no difference between the exploitation of a prostitute and that of a person working in Tesco stacking shelves for 12 hours a day.