For the majority, the internet is simply a tool for convenience. For some, the internet is a form of escapism, a world with no boundaries or consequences. The internet is a popular melting pot with over five billion users from diverse backgrounds such as age, race, gender, and religion, all going onto a shared online space. There inevitably is toxicity in the form of hate, harassment, and bullying. Toxicity is inevitable and evident, and it is very easy to find hate everywhere on the internet, especially with the growing social media platforms. In general, online spaces often enable or encourage those with toxic behaviours to emerge.

The question is, why is something made to make life easier then misused to disseminate hate? It is easy to stumble upon communities of negative content through unrestricted and unfiltered use of the internet. In shared online spaces, where anonymity can be assured, irresponsible people make full use of that advantage to send hateful and toxic messages, knowing there are practically no consequences, thus baiting and allowing people to mask blatant homophobia, racism, sexism, transphobia, and hate as “dark humour”. A part of the issue is “stan culture” within fandoms.

Fandom refers to the fans of a particular person, group, fictional series, etc. In most fandoms, there are even smaller groups of people who specifically like something within the fandom, causing sub fandoms. In this case, there will be a focus on “Stan Twitter,” a community of Twitter users that post opinions related to music, celebrities, TV shows, movies, and social media. The word “stan” originates from a combination of the word “super” and “fan.” Over time, the word’s meaning has been watered down and is used generally and loosely as the word you call yourself when you are a fan of something. Many people are identified as part of fandoms, seen on social media platforms such as Twitter, Tiktok, Reddit, and Instagram. People who are part of fandoms often call themselves stans and use the above-mentioned online spaces to share their common interests.

Now you’re thinking, how could an online space where people talk about their interests be toxic? Naturally, not everyone has the same interests. In general, different fandoms do have rivalries. Things could get ugly fast and escalate when there is an internal discourse within the fandom, as well as discourse started outside the fandom by people referred to as “antis”. Antis, simply put, are people who dislike almost everything that a certain fandom likes. This causes stans and antis to fight, the start of harassing and bullying of those who disagree with them.

Particularly the antis on social media often takes toxicity to a whole new level by expressing their hate to stans, and the interest/person that is liked (celebrity, movie, etc.), with troll tweets and genuine hate posts. In return, people who are devoted to the attacked celebrity/movie, etc., are bound to counter them by sending hate back. This creates a constant cycle of drama, where certain trolls purposely rile fans up to soak in the attention, and at times, you can read that literal grown adults could be fighting with hordes of children on the internet over a celebrity or an issue.

Antis often blame stans for making the internet toxic, while stans do the same to antis, but in reality, both are to blame for creating such a toxic space. It is a common occurrence to see people send death threats on stan Twitter, which to the average person may seem shocking. In some cases, people are simply bored, and they comment on people's posts simply to annoy people. For example, @chartdata on Twitter posts stats for music, and people will comment things such as “*insert artist* outsold,” “I don’t see *insert artist* doing this,” or “*insert artist* could never” to rile people up and start unnecessary drama. With that comes hate trains, cancel culture, hate raids, and hate following.

Hate trains are defined as the strong disliking of a specific person, concept, or object manifested in a metaphorical, abstract train. While cancel culture is defined as the popular practice of withdrawing support from public figures and companies after they have done or said something that is considered objectionable or offensive. Along with the cancel culture, hate trains often follow suit. Holding someone accountable for what they’ve done/said is important, but with cancel culture, oftentimes it is toxic, and many people end up jumping on the hate train. Antis take advantage of the fact that someone is being “cancelled” to further send hate.

In some cases, toxicity is created due to herd mentality. Herd mentality is how people get influenced by their peers to do something, mainly because others are doing it. Consequently, hate raids are something that happens on a streaming platform called ‘Twitch,’ where certain streamers will send their fans to another streamer's chat merely to send hate. Hate following is a phenomenon that occurs when a person follows another person who they hate. This person causes the follower to feel hatred, envy, or anger towards the person they followed.

A few reasons thought to cause hate following is to boost one’s ego, to “prove” to themselves that they are right to hate on the said person, and that it is simply human nature.

As it is human nature to seek beauty in perfection, it is also an avenue for toxic people to exploit those seeking it. As such, there are many trends and standards that make TikTok (a video-focused social networking platform) toxic. Setting trends will easily gain you followings on TikTok, and with it comes hate on a large scale out of pure jealousy or hatred. That said, most users do purposely make toxic and harmful content to gain popularity and followers.

In essence, TikTok plays a big part in glorifying toxic and harmful trends that surface on the app with an app algorithm that makes it easier to push for similar content over and over again. Many of these trends involve some form of body checking, showcasing what you eat in a day, and beauty standards. People on TikTok love creating unnecessary (sometimes impossible) beauty standards and thus promoting insecurities, like ‘hip dips’ for example, for likes and views to enhance their popularity. These trends are not only be harmful to one’s confidence but could also lead to more serious problems such as eating disorders and body dysmorphia.

Finally, the online gaming community is notorious for being toxic. From small toxic comments on gameplay to get a go or poke fun at teammates or the enemy team known as ‘trash talking’, to full-on harassment, abuse, and bullying. This is a common occurrence within the online gaming community. Often insults are laced with racism, homophobia, and all the hate in the world; it is without a doubt that the community is toxic.

In a male-dominant community, misogyny is very prominent. When a female player uses voice chat in a game, most male players are quick to throw insults and not take them seriously. “Go back to the kitchen” or “Go make me a sandwich” are common childish phrases that men think are so funny to insult female players with. This hate and toxicity normally hinder female players from using the voice chat system in-game and even prevents them from wanting to play the game overall.

Toxicity will always exist on the internet. There is no denying that negative content on the internet rubs off on you and has an unhealthy influence and impact on lives. People on the internet often don’t treat each other as real humans, but rather like a soulless screen. Consequently, you are responsible for curating your own internet experience, so do what you must to make it the best possible. Having been on social media for a long time myself, especially in places where stan culture is very prominent, acknowledging that the space you are in is toxic while not engaging with the hate is the best thing you could do. Don't be part of the problem.

The Toxic Culture Of The Internet

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