People can truly be horrible sometimes. With the use of social media gaining a lot more traction over the last couple of years, people have used it to connect to each other, but they have also used it for more diabolical reasons – to spew abuse to others.

The case in point here is Zelda Williams, the daughter of legendary actor Robin Williams who died of an apparently suicide on Monday.

She has recently taken to Twitter to explain that she will be leaving the micro-blogging site and photo editing application Instagram for an indefinite time, as she can’t cope with the huge amount of trolling and abuse she has been receiving.

I’m sorry. I should’ve risen above. Deleting this from my devices for a good long time, maybe forever. Time will tell. Goodbye.

— Zelda Williams (@zeldawilliams) August 13, 2014

On Instagram, in which all the images have now been deleted, she wrote “I will be leaving this account for a bit while I heal and decide if I’ll be deleting it or not. In this difficult time, please try to be respectful.”

But she has also taken to her blog to make light of some of the personal online attacks that she has received.

“To those he touched who are sending kind words, know that one of his favourite things in the world was to make you all laugh. As for those who are sending negativity, know that some small, giggling part of him is sending a flock of pigeons to your house to poop on your car. Right after you’ve had it washed. After all, he loved to laugh too.”

Robin Williams has stated in the past that he named his daughter after Princess Zelda from The Legend of Zelda video game series.

[Image – CC by 2.0/Wikimedia, header image – CC by 2.0/Bronson Boehmer]