While social media platforms offer us a chance to connect with it other, they also open up routes of verbal attack.
Internet trolls send abusive messages – from threats of rape and death to suicide prompts – without fear of consequence, and many are able to successfully hide behind their keyboards using anonymity to spread hateful speech across the web.
But who are these elusive trolls, and why do they do what they do?
Delving into the topic is blogger Em Ford, who received so many online insults that she reclaimed them and turned them into a hit viral video.
With the help of journalist David McClelland, Ford seeks to remove the online barrier that might make some trolls feel that they can hurl abuse to whoever they like, by tracking them down and confronting them.
There are some heartbreaking cases explored here, from a mother whose 14 year-old girl committed suicide due to the barrage of hurtful messages she received, and still continued to receive after taking her own life, to a football referee who receives threatening and sneering comments about his cancer-stricken wife and teenage daughter.
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Ford also helps Louise Mensch track down one of her trolls who repeatedly sends her pornographic images, with the writer and politician taking a 7000 mile round trip from the States to speak to him face-to-face.
It’s a brave move, but the results of the following interview show depressingly little remorse from the grown man seeking online notoriety.
As internet trolling becomes an increasingly prevalent and dangerous phenomenon, it’s an area in dire need of conversation – and Troll Hunters make a strong contribution towards that.
BBC Three, 9pm
