By Nick Clayton
It perhaps wasn't surprising to find Noel Edmonds had been the target of an anonymous Internet campaign. The TV personality has had a love-hate relationship with the public since the 1970s and 1980s when his shows were consistently among the most highly viewed in the U.K.
Although not a user of social media, he says, in March he discovered there was a Facebook page entitled "Somebody please kill Noel Edmonds."
According to the Daily Mail, he asked Facebook to take it down, but he was told action would be taken if there was a police complaint. At this point he decided to take matters into his own hands. He started to track down the individual behind the Facebook page using a U.K. agency, Web Sheriff, which is more often involved in anti-piracy activity. The Daily Mail reports:
The firm contacted Facebook's headquarters in the United States and traced the page to a computer user from Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent. Mr Edmonds contacted the campus to request a face-to-face meeting with the man in return for not reporting the matter to the police, which could have led to a charge for incitement to violence… In an hour-long meeting, the man, who was accompanied by his sister and girlfriend, was described as 'more than sorry' for setting up the site and the distress it had caused Mr Edmonds and his wife, former Deal Or No Deal make-up artist Liz Davies, 42. It is understood Mr Edmonds offered to fund the PhD student to research a project into understanding what drives internet trolls to wage campaigns against people they have never met.
Daily Mail: Cyber-sleuth Noel traces 'he needs to die' Facebook troll… and offers to pay for his studies
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