According to Garde, BP America's Director of Employee Concerns Oversight, Mike Wilson, was apprised of the situation. Wilson was provided examples of harassment and was asked if the examples were reviewed by Ogilvy. "The discussion is ongoing, and Mr Wilson is addressing these specific concerns internally," Garde added.
A BP spokesman provided the following statement for Al Jazeera: "The BP America Facebook page, and its moderators, do not endorse or dictate any user activity. All users' comments and actions are their own. BP created the BP America Facebook page to engage the public in an informative conversation about our ongoing commitment to America and to facilitate constructive dialogue for any and all who wish to participate. No users are compensated for participating in the Facebook community. More information on our commenting policy can be found here."
Marie, however, staunchly believes that BP is responsible for the pro-BP Facebook trolls.
"I have no doubt that they are, and I've found the links between the trolls and their friends who work for BP," she told Al Jazeera. "The Government Accountability Project, through the inquiry they're conducting for me, is still trying to find out. But we are being stonewalled on the other end, as far as BP doing some type of an internal investigation into these connections that I've uncovered."
According to Marie, the harassment "almost ceased completely at around the same time GAP received Garde's letter. I say 'almost' because at least two of the people who were involved in the prior harassment are still allowed to comment on BP's page to this day, and [one of those] was still checking on people's profiles to obtain their state of residence, and would use this against them on the page."
"Terroristic threats"
Lockman's investigation continues, as do the efforts of recovering additional documentation and sifting through information on hand that links the trolls to both BP and Ogilvy as well as to other subcontracted companies used by BP as creative storytellers.
"The information we possess regarding Marie's claims, printed out, fills two file boxes, and that does not include all the DVDs which are currently being duplicated at this time," Lockman said. "It is an unbelievable amount of documentation that has been developed. This documentation, support materials, and information is coming from several different sources. It is like a spider web and we just got started."
Al Jazeera asked the firm Lockman works for what the possible legal ramifications would be for the alleged actions of BP and Ogilvy.
"What these guys are doing is bordering on illegal," said Paulos the attorney. "Marie's allegations are that these guys have made overt acts beyond what they did online, and it does sound like people who've been the victims of these actions believe they are in imminent danger of bodily harm, and that can become the basis for a claim of assault."
Paulos went on to say that if people who had pending claims against BP were being targeted "it can become a claim of extortion or fraud, depending on how the money is being used." The same applies in cases where money or other benefits are offered in exchange for ceasing the harrassment.
Yet these are not the worst possible crimes.
"They [BP/Ogilvy] are obviously trying to silence folks who are opposed or critical of what they are doing," Paulos claimed. "But it appears as though it has moved into threats that can be considered terroristic threats depending on the intent behind them, so there are a lot of laws they can be treading on, including stalking, and tortious interference with someone's businesses. I understand they've called the workplaces of people on the websites, and depending on what's being said that may become actionable under US civil law. So there are a lot of ways they could be breaching the law based on the intent of their communication and how that has been received."
Paulos believes Marie's case is an example of how corporations such as BP use their money and power to take advantage of a lack of adequate legal regulations over the use of internet trolls and vigorous PR campaigns, and that this should give the general public pause.
"Marie's story shows that corporations do not refrain from cyber-bullying, and they are doing it in a very aggressive fashion."
Other harassment
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