cyber-bullying

19-year-old figure skater Zhu Yi, who was born in California but renounced her American citizenship in 2018 to compete for China, was mercilessly heckled by Chinese social media users after she fell on the ice on Sunday and finished in last place at the Beijing Winter Olympics. The heckling was so intense that Chinese government censors intervened and shut down almost a hundred accounts on Weibo, China’s heavily-controlled alternative to banned Twitter.

The tragic suicide of a Texas teen late last year left one family with few answers and even less justice until this week when authorities arrested and indicted two suspects in connection with the cyber-bullying of their daughter.

This may be a case of “trolling” gone wild, an increasingly common and troubling phenomenon. It’s easy and cost-free for social media users to whip up campaigns of harassment, unleashing destructive passions that can spill over into far worse activities.