1. What is Alphabay, and how has the US government tried to limit its activities?  Cite one court case involving Alphabay. (500 words Minimum) 2. Please describe why it should be easy to expose the tr

Discussion post 1:

The technological changes taking place around the world today are coming along with many demerits, and this calls for tight and robust security measures to be used (Besag, 2017). Hacking and online trolls are becoming common, and this has exposed many people to get hacked or disturbed by these criminals. Cybersecurity is something very essential and ought to be observed if an individual or organization is aiming at having the right way of using these technologies.

Online trolls and cyberbullying are one of the most commonly done on the internet. Online trolls are attacks directed to an individual or individuals (Besag, 2017). Trolls are usually meant to elicit a reaction from a person or organization. In the same vein, some trolls can be very disturbing and can tarnish the name of an individual or organization. On the other hand, cyberbullying refers to a case where cybercriminals harass people and to be precise children while using the internet. Cyberbullying has dramatically made the internet and cyberspace to be feared since people are scared that they are going to be bullied or trolled. The government, however, has established legal ways of dealing with cyber-crimes in the following methods.

First is that the government issued a law that all activities are done online must not be done anonymously not unless it's under certain exceptional circumstances (Besag, 2017). This has helped in unearthing these criminals and reducing the chances of crimes happening. Secondly is that the government enforced a law that if any person is found guilty of cyberbullying, then he or she will have to serve a five-year term in jail. Through these statutes, cyber-crimes have significantly reduced. 

Discussion post 2:

We use internet every day and every min, be it shopping, work, study or anything, we need internet. It’s impossible for many of us to live without internet.  Internet allows us to share our stories and communicate with friends, family, and strangers all across the world, the internet has changed forever. By using internet most of us is likely that we have noticed the web’s most unfortunate side: Online trolls and cyberbullying, this can take many forms, they can come in the form of abusive status updates, comments to the posts, harsh emails, mean text messages, spreading rumors on social media, creating fake profiles and posting as someone else, posting/sharing morphed pictures and fake videos to humiliate an individual.

Cyber-bullying is the use of technology for bad reasons to harass and target another person. So with the advancement of technology we can find the true identity of the person even if they are not using their identity. There are multiple ways to expose the true identities of online trolls and cyberbullies. Take all the degrading messages, posts and comments to the Internet service or content provider through which the bullying is occurring and your service provider can identify them by the IP address. If anyone, be it’s a kid or adult who are being cyberbullied on social media websites like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, contact them with the hurtful posts you are receiving and they will help you taking down the person responsible for the hate messages. If you are receiving hurtful or threatening cell phone messages, contact your cell phone provider to obtain assistance. Many website we use are against the online harassment and they take swift action if you report them through their customer care or any other established mechanism, and they can help in removing the hurtful content and messages from the websites. If any cyberbully refuse to stop, there are many additional actions you can chose for your safety. Contact law enforcement or police officers with the evidence and they will formally investigate and help you in your situation.

Regarding the Federal laws: In USA where courts and people value free speech, people think they can say whatever they want. There is no federal law which can directly address cyberbullying and trolls, however there are some laws protecting people from online harassment. Federal stalking law (18 U.S. Code § 2261A.Stalking) which got amended in the year 2011 includes the digital offenses. In most of the states, they have various criminal laws that will be applying to bullying behaviors. Every school will have bullying laws to discipline students in measured ways. Any school which fails to protect its students from online harassment will be violating civil laws such as: Title IV and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which are enforced by the Department of Education and the Department of Justice