Warning from Glasgow blogger after her Instagram was hijacked by a troll
A Glasgow blogger has been telling us about the horrifying moment she logged onto social media to find someone had created a fake profile filled with her pictures on Instagram.
Should we be thinking about getting tough on internet trolls who hide behind fake profiles?
That's the question being asked by prosecutors in England and Wales who are looking at introducing new guidelines for when people impersonate someone else to post damaging or embarrassing material.
Clyde News has been talking to Cairo O’Neill, 23, from Glasgow about her panic after an internet troll faked her Instagram profile.
The fashion blogger said; “It was out of my control and I didn’t know what the call of action was to get it shut down.
“The first thing I did, because I was with my friends at the time, I got them all to report the page and then I tagged myself as the ‘real’ person. I also mailed the page and asked them to take the photos down as they were my property. Soon I was blocked from the account and then after that the page was taken down.
“I was really difficult to find out what happened. I didn’t get any communication from Instagram and so I don’t know if it was them that took the page down or if it was the person.”
“It’s scary more than anything. My most concerning point was wondering what the hijacker was saying to others. Something needs to be done to stop people stealing others’ identities. If there was some sort of control or law to punish people who do this there might be a lot less of it, I’d definitely say it would be good for Scotland.”
You can listen to Cairo’s interview with our reporter Shiona McCallum here:
The guidelines also include advice on new crimes such as revenge pornography.
The CPS guidelines advise prosecutors on how to interpret existing laws.
A six-week consultation on the proposed changes has now started.