The recent controversy surrounding Leslie Jones and the targeting of her by so-called 'trolls' has raised the issue of celebrity culture and its availability to the darkest corners of the Internet.

For those that don't know, Leslie Jones was targeted by hackers and had personal information and intimate images posted on her website for all to see. The process is known as doxxing and it's pretty disgusting, to say the least. The whole incident was widely reported and many in the media specifically referred to the hackers as trolls.

Trolls has become the by-word for those who specifically attack celebrities with the likes of hacking, concerted campaigns and online abuse. Trolls, of course, aren't just limited to attacking powerful celebrities online. We've had a few here on this very site who've specifically attacked our editorial staff by particularly nasty and personal comments. Most celebrities and journalists who deal in the public eye and give voice to their opinion, good or bad, understand that trolling is part of the territory.

It shouldn't be, but it is.

However, the use of the world 'troll' has become a bit more suspect. Trolling has been a part of popular culture and, more recently, internet culture for many years. It's important to understand the etymology of the word. Before it became associated with racist abuse, stealing and publishing private photos and harassment, trolling was something entirely different. Trolling was essentially about instigating hostile exchanges between forum users on the likes of 4Chan and Usenet. It was provoking anger by being facetious or stating an opinion that wasn't held by the collective group. In some cases, it was purposefully stating something wrong in order to illicit a response. Here's an example of old-fashioned trolling.

The idea of trolling was to be as provocative as possible; it was as much about provoking a response as it was laughing at. Trolling grew to include raiding, which essentially means turning up in a forum or Internet place and disrupting it as much as possible. 4Chan regularly conducted raids on 9Gag, whose users copied and republished jokes, memes and so on from 4Chan to 9Gag and passed them off as their own. 4Chan's response was to turn up on 9Gag and post hardcore pornography.

In 2006, the then-popular MMORPG Habbo Hotel was raided by 4Chan 'trolls' who specifically blocked popular areas of the game over claims that its moderators were racially profiling African-American players and banning them from the game. Trolls blocked players from specific areas in response to the alleged racism being carried out by moderators on Habbo Hotel. In 2010, a raid by trolls was conducted on YouTube which saw hardcore pornography being uploaded to the site with preview images of pop musicians. The raid was due to an eight-year old YouTuber's account being suspended by the site because of his age. Again, trolls felt this was unjust and decided to act.

Of course, like anything in the Internet, it becomes more extreme with each passing year and things change to include more sinister elements. However, the term stuck and anything relating to online abuse was considered trolling. So it goes that we come to Leslie Jones and her attack and, sure enough, many in the media refer to it as trolling.

Here's the thing - it's not trolling and the people who do it aren't trolls. They're racists and they're psychopaths. The definition of a troll is someone who irritates or vexes someone for their own amusement. The definition of a psychopath is someone who is antisocial, lacks empathy and remorse, and possess a lack of consciousness.

Specifically targeting Leslie Jones, an African-American female comedian and actor who's in the public eye, because she's all those things is racist and sexist. It's that simple. Trolling was originally about antagonising those in power with mild frustration. Hell, the likes of Andy Kaufman could be considered a troll by that same definition. Our own Mike Murphy and his skits on the Live Mike could be classed as trolling. After all, he made a point of finding well-known celebrities - Gay Byrne, for example - and winding them up in whatever way he could think of. MTV's Punk'd, RTE's Naked Camera, all about winding people and trolling them.

Where it stops being trolling and starts being vicious is when it is intended not to frustrate, but to terrify, humiliate and degrade. The problem with calling it "trolling" is that it's passed off as just weirdos on the Internet, keyboard warriors sitting in darkened rooms who are laughing away to themselves. It can make it seem less important and less vile than, say, someone setting fire to a cross or flying a Nazi flag during a public parade. The reality is that the two are one in the same. They're both deeply wrong, except one happens on a screen and the other happens in real life.

That's why these people aren't trolls. They're psychopaths.