I know more about internet trolls than a lot of people who have written about them because I've been trolled and stalked myself. Now I'm exploiting them for personal gain.
This is what I've learned.
Who are these people?
Probably someone you know. If not, it's someone you met online. They come from all age groups and walks of life and have one thing in common: they love to argue and trash other people; and get a thrill when they either get a reaction or cause them to abandon the site they use. The vast majority are teenage loners. They don't see others as being people in the same way they are. That's what permits them to add mocking captions to gory pictures of a car crash victim, joke about it, then recruit other people to phone the family and pretend to be her ghost, among other things. When the tables are turned, all Hell breaks loose because they don't like that kind of thing coming their way.
How do they operate?
The parasite: they start arguments that go on for days, weeks, months or even years. A smart, manipulative troll who comes across as urbane and sophisticated may be hard to recognise as being one because he's subtle in the way he abuses, but if he keeps an old argument going on and on, he's a troll. This type is obsessive and likes to maintain a connection, and often insists that the target is constantly watching them. Trolling and stalking by this type can go on for years, and they often recruit others to join in the abuse of their target.
The carpet-bomber: trolls like to bombard interactive internet services with ugly or indecent images or statements, or use internet memes such as "Longcat is long" repeated over and over again to overwhelm a forum or message board and make it unreadable – and unusable. The idea is to shut the website, message board or forum down. Trolling by this type doesn't tend to last because they do it for the “lulz,” or laughs at other people's expense. Incidents tend to last for an hour or so, then tail off and stop when they and their cohorts have been banned. They tend to come in groups, and the term of “spamming,” or bombardment, tends to last for a month or two. If it goes on for longer, with clusters of spamming “raids” going on for days at a time, then stopping, it's because they've been recruited by a parasite.
The slimer: They work by repeatedly posting exaggerated complaints or negative statements (“wank”) about their targets on multiple sites to ruin their reputations. This usually attracts other trolls, who are then recruited to join in the abuse. A mob mentality results, and they work to isolate the target by recruiting his or her associates. The idea is to conquer or “PWN” the target by forcing them to leave the website in question. Some trolls have even forced their victims off the internet altogether.
Trolls don't tend to remain in the categories assigned to them. They often adopt each other's tactics and work together to create a community dedicated to making someone's life a misery. Sociable trolls may complicate matters by making friends with non-trolls. When they're friends with your friends (it happened to me), online life can become very complicated.
How to deal with it
If you're being trolled or cyberbullied, the best thing to do is ignore it and shut it out as well as you can, then build an online network of friends whose positivity can bury the trolls' abuse and render it ineffective. My Suite 101 article on cyberabuse, Stop Troll Trouble, has comprehensive advice on what to do to protect yourself and your computer from them.
Taking the following advice should enable you to continue your online experience when targeted by trolls.
Keep quiet: do not complain about them where they can see it or they'll see it as proof that you're giving them the attention they crave. If you simply must complain about them on your blog, set that post to private or friends-only. Do not let your friends or posters on your forum or message board talk about them unless those posts are hidden from public view. Where there are trolls there's no freedom of speech for their targets.
Never read the posts they make and don't even think about reading their blogs. Curiosity is natural, but if they can get you to pay attention to them in any way, they've won. Avoid all contact with them. Never reply to posts they've made or correspond openly with their non-troll friends. Keep away from them, and keep them out!
Get support: be very careful how you do this. Building and maintaining relationships with friendly people is the key, but for Heaven's sake don't let them get involved with your problem. What I'm advocating here is creating an ever-increasing network of friends whose camaraderie drowns the trolls' efforts to spoil your online experience. Attempting to get your friends to troll the trolls will either backfire or make a bad thing much, much worse.
Create a plethora of positive posts. My fanfiction awards program has greatly increased my online profile and added to my popularity. The result is, few people takes the trolls' comments seriously. Commenting favourably on people's blogs and building networks of associates with shared interests will quickly bury negative information about you on the internet.
Other options
Getting them to stop by any other means is an uphill struggle and chances are, you will lose.
Reputation management companies may claim to be able to remove negative content, but when they come across a statement made by “an opinionated person” there's no chance they'll take it on; they usually advise that attempting to do so will make matters worse.
Reporting them to the authorities is only truly effective if there is an element of threat involved, and even that must be credible. Messages beginning with "I will rip out your intestines..." won't be taken seriously because they are an internet meme and not a genuine threat. However, reporting such incidents to the IC3 Internet Crime Complaint Center creates a log that can be used to prosecute a troll or cyberstalker for federal offences if the case goes to a civil court - provided that you win.
Leave the site – or the internet: if the abuse is severe and you've got no reason to remain, you might as well leave. Setting up a new account and avoiding the websites frequented by the trolls may allow you to continue online life, but be careful not to provide any clues that could identify you to the trolls, or connect you to your old account. This is a last resort – the minute you leave, they've won, and experience the thrill of having conquered you. Then they go off and do it again to someone else.
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