An Irish woman claims she has been trolled over a million times ever since she publicly announced that she had married an ancient pirate ghost.
Amanda Teague, 47, from Drogheda, Co Louth, claims she has been trolled over one million times and has even been subject of death threats.
She first made the headlines in 2018 after announcing that she had legally married the ghost of a 300-year-old Haitian pirate.
Amanda says she has been blasted by trolls who have subjected her to shocking online abuse which led to her moving home.
She even claims that she has been mocked over the death of her late son who died when he was a tot.
Speaking to the Irish Sun, Amanda said: "I had to move home after the story broke because I got so much abuse from people in my area. I got called a devil worshipper, and all these kinds of things.
“I had a guy messaging me saying he was going to find me and burn down my house with me in it, he said he knew where I lived.
“He messaged me at 2am saying he was on his way to find me. I thought, ‘this is terrifying, how does he know where I live?’
“I’ve had to change my appearance a lot. Part of it is because I didn’t want to be identifiable.
“I knew there would be backlash with a story like that and I have no issues with someone having a laugh in a light-hearted manner, I don’t mind people even questioning it or saying, ‘I don’t believe that’.
“That’s fine, I’m totally in favour of free expressions but when I started getting these horrible comments, I thought this is not OK.
"There are over 23,000 comments on one article online alone and 99 per cent of them are negative.
“The comments about my son dying bring back a lot of hurt. I had learned to deal with it, and I learned to move on with my life — and then someone comments saying he’s better off dead and that brings it all back to me.
“It brings up emotions that you don’t want to be reminded of. I feel strongly about respecting the dead. Some of them will comment about my son having a pirate dad. It’s absolutely disgusting.
She said: “I did go through seven or eight months last year where I was very depressed and I went off social media. But as soon as I went back on, it all started again.”
Amanda has since 'split' from her pirate husband after claiming that he tried to kill her by giving her sepsis.
In response to the online abuse, Amanda has launched a new campaign calling on social media companies to crack down on online bullying.
She said: “When you open an account, you should have to provide photo ID. It shouldn’t have to be the case where you have to wait until your account is reported.
“That way, faceless trolls lose their platform and it means that stuff like threats and speech that breaks the law, could be traceable.”
She said: “Not everyone has a thick skin so we want to offer support to people as well, because they are not alone.
Amanda has started a Facebook page called Stand Together Against Online Trolling, Abuse & Bullying with the hashtag @zerotoleranceforonlineabuse and hopes to support anyone out there who is also suffering from online abuse.
- For more info, visit Stand Together Against Online Trolling, Abuse & Bullying on Facebook.
