Charlotte Dawson found dead in her home

This is very sad news. I hope she wasn’t driven to her death by mindless, spiteful comments from gutless people hiding behind a keyboard. RIP to a beautiful lady.

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This is really sad news. We just hope her death will not be in vain. She was a beautiful caring person

It’s moments like this that I realise how utterly incapacitating depression can be for fellow human beings. I am going to miss this lovely lady on my television. She was a genuine and effective campaigner for gay marriage. We miss you Charlotte.

If this incident in any way is connected to or precipitated by online bullying, I feel sorry for our society, ashamed of the publishers of websites that don’t do enough to moderate comment and really question the phrase “social media”.

I am no psychologist but I can only draw the conclusion that people who are trolls online are really trolls in real life. Duplicitous,unhappy people wanting to snipe, carp and bring others down to compensate for their own inadequacies.

This is not just an Australian phenomenon, but unfortunately the tall poppy syndrome here seems to make us numb to the real hurt caused. These trolls and their keyboard courage are the new criminals, as terrifying as predators, as cowardly and brutal as a king hit. There is blood on someone’s laptop.

I came out against this behaviour two years ago and yet it was met with the tepid indifference that a crazy person wailing in the street would receive.

This is just not right. And we have lost a decent person who couldn’t process why people would be so unnecessarily vicious.But can any sane person explain it away?

Imagine this happening to your wife, your daughter, your son, your friend?

This was always going to happen to someone. Are we going to pay attention this time?

My deep sympathy goes to her family and other loved ones

Sean Cummins

Very well said Sean. Maybe you’re the man who can take up the fight? I, for one would stand beside you and do anything I could to help. Vale Charlotte.

It’s an opportunity for all of us to reflect.

Advertising itself is a tough gig, at the best of times. We need to take care of one another.

Dear Charlotte,

It is with a heavy heart that I wish you peace and respite! It is sad to see that your life has ended in a way that was so foreseeable. It is cruel the way in which you were antogonised, yet it was also the type of antogonism that you sought- you tried to fight a battle that was never winnable, and now many are left helpless that you are gone. I shed tears that the last moments for you on earth were so painful and lonely, and that it was so unbearable for you to go on, and also so sad that no matter how many people loved and cared for you, their support was never enough to help you through such deep and hurtful times. May you rest in peace- it hurts me so much to imagine the last ten minutes of your life- when you decided that earth was no longer a place for you. May you rest in peace- and the good that you sought spread across the community and help others in such a helpless situations!

It shocks me that no matter how much love you had from friends, family and strangers, that the only way to resolve your pain was to take yourself from this world that we call earth and home.

May your soul rest in peace-never to be cruelly treated by those that never knew you- and may you be remembered by all those that knew and loved you.

Now let your soul Rest In Peace.

Gigi

As a sufferer of mental health issues for so many years of my life I have been very close, to where tragically Charlotte reached, many times. It is difficult to comprehend unless you live it, but when you are very depressed, you are already in a fragile and vunerable state. It is so easy to be seriously affected by a trigger of some kind. It is so easy to be lured into people bullying you and spiral into a more desperate state. I have been through it to an awful degree. There is this incredible isolation, fear and worthlessness one feels. I feel frantic and become obsessed with what they have said etc. It is not about weakness. This state for me I describe as agony. I’ve been on medication and off it, I’ve been in hospital and housebound etc. I have put on draining brave fronts. If you have other problems in your life simultaneously, this will only compound what is already hell.I am in my late 50’s now, I had so much going for me in the past..I have spent the last few months in a downward spiral. Decent human beings deserve better than this. Those who torment others, I find are bitter and jealous. I have only been apart of this social media crap more recently in my life. I was telling my adult kids the other day how much I loathe it. It is creating new problems and changing behaviour in people I had never seen previously. Communication via ipads, iphones, computers etc. means one can’t interpret the tone of the message. It gives some opportunity to make gutless comments. My daughter urged me, ironically the other day, to get off it and made a strong point that anyone who is in a fragile state should not have face book, etc. In the case of Charlotte, as she was apart of the social media, I guess it was harder to escape from it. Too young to die…. a tragic end to her life….at peace at last in heaven.

Sean, these people (whoever they are, or whoever you’re referring to) are not trolls. They are bullies.

There is a difference between trolling someone and attacking them.

Come on Tim and all the Mumbrella team-you condone trolls-admit it.Maybe none so vicious as those that tormented Charlotte but hurtful haranguing bastards nevertheless.Sean has copped it on this site and has had the courage to speak out.So have I been attacked and deeply hurt but suffered in silence but no less humiliated.My friends and family work in this industry and go to Mumbrella and last time I was set upon I was embarrassed by their sympathy.
I simply went about my job but in a way that your audience(not all) didn’t like.
Their subjectivity and abuse caused me to take stress leave.So Tim enough hypocracy-what a you doing to eliminate this bullying?AscSean said we must all take a stand.Speak up Mumbrella!

Hi Hippo,

Thanks for the comment.

We do encourage people to get involved in robust debate on the site, but these are limited to comments about work and ideas, and we do not allow attacks on people.

We certainly don’t condone, or allow, trolling on this site.

Cheers,

Alex – editor, Mumbrella

I don’t understand why she continued to use Twitter even after admitting that when someone online tells you to kill yourself and you’ve already tried it before, then it is tempting to try it again. She should have stopped using all social media until she was more stable. Very sad. RIP.

Agree with Sean, well said.

What has the wonderful Twitterverse and FacelessBook given us???? A way for GUTLESS, PATHETIC COWARDS to air and express their USELESS LITTLE LIVES AND OPINIONS to people who live life outside of a box of wiring, without having to show the courage of their convictions by showing their identity. Is there a lower form of humanity?

I think Hippo has over stated his point. But Tim, Alex etc, it might be the right time to think hard about the impact some of your content has on the advertising and marketing community. We all have a responsibility in this area, and it feels to me that sometimes you forget that.