Many celebrities who are active on social media have to contend with obnoxious trolls. Unfortunately, until social media offers individual users more control and/or until Twitter and Instagram crack down on abuse, it’s going to keep happening. It’s one thing to deal with a bothersome troll or rude tweets, it’s quite another to have a stalker who spends countless hours creating fake accounts from which to harass other fans. Chicago Fire actress Sophia Bush, 32, is being harassed online so much that she’s decided to speak out about it. She posted screenshots of the stalker’s tweets as well as detailed information about how he’s spewing hate at other users. The stalker has created accounts in Bush’s name from which he’s sending violent threats. Bush has contacted law enforcement who have advised her to ignore it, but it’s gotten so bad that she’s saying something about it.
For the past few months I have been harassed to the point of sheer horror by an online stalker. This person has taken to harassing and bullying many of my followers as well. And tonight I finally said f*k this sh*t. This is what I posted to twitter. The photograph is a tiny sampling of over 500 screenshots I’ve taken in the last three months. And I’m sharing it here to make something very clear. This kind of behavior does. Not. Fly. You do not have permission to hide. Not anymore: This has gotten beyond out of hand. Obsessive. Violent. And legally punishable. To any of you who’ve been targeted by @SophhiaBush, I’m so sorry. I’m sure he/she will be blocked again soon, only to create another account. We’re close to 20 now. And law enforcement says “we’re on it,” and “don’t acknowledge this person,” but when this person, this vitriolic perverse monster is targeting all of you? Threatening rape, gang rape, & throat slitting to name a few? Impersonating me and breaking some of your hearts? Telling people they should kill themselves, and detailing how? Nope. No silence. As the evidence of staking and harassment mounts, so does my anger. Because this is grotesque. And on the other side, my sadness mounts as well. What happened to you, you poor lost soul, that this is how you find pleasure? That you need to attempt to destroy little bits of other people to build yourself up, bit by bit? Who in your life hurt you? Who made you need to act out like this? Because my god I feel so sorry for you. But my sorrow in the face of your pain is no match for my anger at the pain you are causing others. You do not have the right to spread poison because you have felt poisoned. It’s a small minded and ugly path to take. Choosing to inflict pain doesn’t make you strong or powerful. It only proves your weakness and self-loathing. All the time you’re taking to verbally harass us, threaten physical assault, and terrorize strangers? Please start spending it in therapy and learn to love yourself. You deserve it. And because none of us deserve one more moment of your bullying bullshit. #gethelp #bullyingisugly #violenceisntfunny #thereisabetterway
[From Sophia Bush on Instagram]
A long time ago I read an excellent book that I highly recommend called The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker. Security expert de Becker advises stalking victims to not acknowledge or respond to the stalker in any way. The stalker is seeking a response, and even telling them to stop is perceived as reinforcement for their behavior. Sometimes they ramp up the threats and attempts at contact to achieve any small acknowledgment from the victim.
While I understand why Bush is calling this horrible behavior out, I also understand why law enforcement told her to ignore it. There’s no easy answer to this, and I hope they catch the creep. I also hope that Twitter in particular starts taking trolling seriously. They should have an entire division dedicated to combating trolling, but so far they’ve ignored it.
Photo credit: WENN.com
If someone is impersonating her, I can see why she would want to let people know that it isn’t her making the weird threats.
The gift of fear is a amazing book. I recommend it as well.
I feel like reacting to this harassment is adding fuel to the fire. I know when your name is being used in a horrible way, first feeling would be to defend themselves though.
There’s a reason why its called escalating behavior.
Yeah, having been in a sort-of similar situation, I completely understand her impulse to speak out about it. However, all it does is give the stalker the impression that the stalker has an effect on her and that Bush is paying attention to the stalker.
My sympathies to her and hope the harassment ends soon.
And if she kept quiet and something happened, then people would be criticizing her for not saying anything. Stalkers put people in lose-lose situations.
^ this.
Oh, man. That is some scary stuff, and I know you are not supposed to acknowledge the nutjob, but I guess SB just couldn’t stand it anymore. Our laws really need to catch up with our tech. I hope they can find this sick person.
I’ve always liked her. She’s eloquent about what she believes. When it comes down to it, I could totally see a social media threat case in front of the Supreme Court in the next 15 years. Free speech allows you to advocate but not threaten.
Social media is a product of privately held companies, so there is no Free Speech. We sign and abide by their terms of service.
Poor Sophia. No one deserves to be bullied and harassed by some jackass. Unfortunately, the Internet lets these trolls thrive. I hope this jerk finally leaves her alone.
Maybe Twitter needs to start banning multiple accounts from the same IP address.
That’s a great idea, except that there are people who share a PC , and will get caught in this mess.
It’s easy to change your IP address and I think they even have a program that changes it every few minutes. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.
I understand why people say to ignore it, but some things are really, really hard to ignore. There was an article a while back about obsessed fans who would threaten to harm animals or other people unless a celebrity acknowledged them or tweeted to them or something like that. I think that stuff is harder to ignore – and frankly, you might not want to let it go, because they might be serious.
There’s a difference between not engaging and letting something go. Stalking is an escalating behavior: meaning, it’ll get worse and worse. When you give a stalker what they want (acknowledgement) all it does is validate what they’re doing.
Eek that’s scary.
She did the right thing by reporting it, and I honestly don’t think it’s fair for me to say that she should stop tweeting in order to get some peace, but if it’s that bad?!? Close the account and call it a day.
A person who sends you messages like that is not worth losing your sanity over.
So sorry for her. Damn those useless cops, typical response.
All these incidents of real life stalkers made Adam Levine’s video seem even more inappropriate (if that’s possible). There are crazy people out there who actually believe that premise – that people will eventually start wanting you if you keep at the stalking…scary. I know this is a different version, but like other people have posted, behavior can escalate!
I wonder if changing social networks from free to a monthly subscription would help?
like, if you want a free account you can, but it’s only good for X amount of tweets, posts, etc.
Might it cut back at least some of the problem?
If this same thing had been happening to the POTUS, a US Congressman or any member of their family then the FBI would be at the perpetrator’s doorstep the following morning.
while i feel badly for what she’s going through, i think this comparison is a bit much. comparing the president to some random starlet? no.
Unfortunately, I feel like theres no “right” way to handle a stalker. The best thing to do is ignore them, but you are talking about someone who has lost touch with reality, and there is no reasoning with someone like that. Restraining orders mean nothing, they walk right through those. I hope this guy does not escalate and try to find her in person.
I find this sadly ironic after the Maroon 5 video release this week. Sexification of stalking.
it is such a bad situation. i was also told to not engage and it makes sense but its almost impossible. i read about stalkers who willingly destoryed stuff to get the victim to report them to get their attention. in a relationship in my circle of friends an ex girlfriend claimed her Ex assaulted her so she could see him in the court room.
stalking is so hard to stop because if you take action you also encouarge them. if you are a regular person its easier to deal with one because as a public person you will most likely have a few. so if one sees that this kind of behaviour leads to Sophia writing so much about this very person than they will get motivated.
not blaming her, i completly understand her, its just such a complex and horrible situation.
I’ve always liked Sophia – she has a lot of younger fans and really uses her social media presence for awareness and charitable causes, and seems like a truly sweet person. I feel bad for her that she’s had to deal with this.
While my first instinct is to ignore some stupid troll like that, maybe she’s just at her wits end with it, and is making it public so twitter gets some backlash for not doing more to prevent stuff like this? Whatever the case, I hope it gets resolved to her satisfaction.
Outrageous.
Celebitchy there is a difference between an Internet ‘troll’ and someone repeatedly harassing/stalking someone. Calling them that trivialises their behaviour. It seems like ahe is genuinely in fear of this person, she doesn’t just have hurt feelings after he bagged her outfit.
Having been stalked many years ago, I can say that ignoring does very little and makes you feel helpless and scared as the stalker amps up the behavior to get acknowledgement. It’s a vicious cycle and ignoring your possibly psychotic bully is not always helpful. I wish I’d had that book years ago. However, I’m wondering if calling someone out and telling the world what is happening and not letting the person hide might help, too. Maybe that’s why she did it. It’s easy to tell the victim to ignore and then continue doing nothing, as the law and social media does.
I had a stalker a few years ago and the ‘ignore it & it’ll go away’ theory is ridiculous. It won’t go away, it will get worse. In what other crime are you advised to ignore the escalating seriousness of the offences & wait until the criminal gets bored?
I don’t think that people that have been stalked should feel “forced” or coerced to use social media /facebook with rewards and websites only using ____book or ______plus either.
They need to stop calling this behaviour “trolling” and start calling it what it is: harassment. People like this give trolls a bad name!