How to respond to trolls on social media?

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Is 'don't feed the trolls' actually good advice? It's complicated.



CHLOE BRYANOCT 25, 2018
It's Troll Week on Mashable. Join us as we explore the good, the bad, and the ugly of internet trolling.


The conventional wisdom is that you shouldn't respond to people who send you hate mail online. Don't feed the trolls, the adage goes. They're doing this to get attention, so don't give them what they want.

But is this advice truly sound, or is it just something people keep saying because they've been hearing it forever?

According to Lauren Hoffman, a clinical psychologist and instructor at Columbia University, the advice is solid from a psychological standpoint. But that's only part of the story.

"Research shows that the typical internet troll posts nasty comments in order to provoke others, trigger conflict, and receive attention," Hoffman says. "When trolling efforts are successful in achieving those outcomes, the nasty behavior is rewarded and therefore likely to continue."

But what about the trolling that gets worse and worse, even if you ignore it? Hoffman chalks that up to something called an "extinction burst," during which a troll might escalate their behavior in the hopes that something even more toxic will elicit a response. This could mean more vitriolic language, more targeted hate, or more frequent abusive messages — you know, all the stuff that shouldn't be on the internet in the first place.

Hoffman explains that if the person on the receiving end of the abuse can "ride out" the extinction burst, the trolling behavior is likely to stop. That's a relief. But what about the time in between? Why should that time have to exist at all?

Online creators, including journalists, have often spoken out against the "don't feed the trolls" axiom, particularly people who have experienced trolling themselves. It's easy to understand the frustration: Why should they have to consider their behavior so carefully when they're the targets?
Why should they have to tread lightly when all they wanted to do was be online?


in an essay for The Verge earlier this year. "The biggest mistake we ever made with trolls was making the question of abuse about how to placate and fix them," they wrote, "instead of how to empower the people they hurt or manage your own well-being in the face of them."

When you're targeted by trolls, the mental and physical toll can be severe. I have lost whole days, felt foggy and anxious for entire weeks because of messages I've received. I've spent even more time agonizing over whether I should respond. (It's worth noting that I am white and cisgender, and that other people on the internet experience much worse.) I also have friends and colleagues who have left social media entirely because of targeted, often violent harassment.

And according to Hoffman, the psychological effects of engaging with trolls can veer into the physiological, including "sweating, rapid heartbeat, muscle tension, or trouble breathing." It's a vast physical price for sticking up for yourself.

So do we stick up for ourselves? Can targets feasibly be the "bigger person" when the trolls make the rules? As troll culture becomes more pervasive online, it becomes harder to pick a blanket answer. In some instances, it's beneficial to expose troll-y bots — especially if they're spreading political lies. (You never know which impressionable people might be reading.) In other situations — including many instances of hate speech — it's likely best for the target's health to just block and move on.

Hoffman agrees. "Pick your battles and set limits for yourself," she says. "Decide what you're willing to ignore, what you might reply to, and what you will block or report."

She also emphasizes the importance of leaning on your community. "It's vital to seek social support, particularly from people who have also experienced online abuse, as well as professional support if distress is intense, frequent, or impairing," she says.


But we also have to change the way we talk about trolling. There's no clear way to deal with trolls because we can't deal with them — not on a large scale, anyway. That's a job for big tech companies, and it's unclear if they're up to the task.

What we can do is stop relying on adages like "don't feed the trolls" without considering a person's specific circumstances. Trolling sucks, after all. All we can do is operate with a bit more empathy.
Is 'don't feed the trolls' actually good advice? It's complicated.
 

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Why You Shouldn't Always Ignore Trolls
Posted on September 23, 2019

!
Warning: This post is over a year old. I don't always update old posts with new information, so some of this information may be out of date.
My friend Justin Jackson recently wrote a blog post entitled "The Haters", a wonderful dive into the psychology of people who are mean online.

In it, he concludes that his first response to toxic people is going to be to ignore them. After all...

trolls--set-ourselves-free.png
(Above quote screen-capped from Justin's article)

I share a lot of strong opinions online, so I meet my fair share of trolls.

I've often received, and shared, the same advice Justin ends his article with: Ignore the trolls.

There's wisdom behind this thinking. Most people, when made aware that they're making you feel bad, will stop. Trolls, on the other hand, have just received exactly what they wanted. So, how do you make them go away? Mute em. (Don't block--but that's another story.)

Justin is right here, as supported by the quote I ripped above. Our wellbeing requires a healthy distance from toxic people, and the first step is to learn how to ignore a troll when that's what you need.

Why fight a troll?
So, if I agree with Justin, why am I even writing this post?

Because I think we should start there... but not end there.

There's one big problem if all we do is ignore the trolls:

None of us ignores trolls in a vacuum.

What do I mean by this? I mean that each troll that bothers you is A) doing so in a way that is seen by others and B) not bothering only you.

When we ignore the trolls, we are prioritizing our own mental health over the imagined "justice" of battling against some ******** This is wise, and good for our sanity!

However, I want to propose that there are times and people--not all times, and not all people--when and for whom it makes more sense to battle some of the trolls, not just ignore them.

Why? Because sometimes fighting a troll sends a message to everyone else. Sometimes it sets a standard of what is and isn't acceptable behavior. Sometimes it speaks the truth when the troll has been speaking untruth. Sometimes it gives others language for what they know but can't express to be true.

Some times we fight a troll not to defend ourselves but to tell others "you're not alone", or "you're not crazy". Some times we fight a troll not to convince them they're wrong but to ensure that truth is spoken and that others who can sense truth have a little less gaslighting in their lives that day.


The Don Quixote of Trolls
My wife often characterizes me as Don Quixote, careening around the Internet fighting trolls like that one XKCD comic we all love about "someone is wrong on the Internet!"

I don't care if someone's wrong, though. I care if someone's making an unhealthy space for others. Making others feel unwelcome, unappreciated, unintelligent. And when I have power and privilege in a place to work to make it safer and more welcoming, I'm going to do it.

However, there are a lot of factors that can make it a bad call. For starters, if you're doing it alone, or if you don't have a supportive community around you, you're probably going to burn out fast:

trolls--community.png
(Above quote screen-capped from Justin's article)

This is why I gave a talk at Laracon this year about the magic of Laravel's community; I want to both celebrate the ways it's welcoming, but also continue to grow as a community that is characterized not by its toxicity but by its hope and its kindness.

One other note to consider: not everyone who disagrees with you on the Internet is a troll. Sometimes that person is just bad at considering the opinions of others as valid. Or, some times... you might be the one who's wrong.

First they came for...
So. I think we should all protect our wellbeing by ignoring the trolls as our first response, as Justin mentioned.

I think we should also consider engaging the trolls when we're in a position to do so, and when it serves a broader goal.

I've said these things before, though. And do you want to know the absolute worst response I've gotten?

Apathy.

Conflict avoidance.

Unwillingness to be made uncomfortable in the pursuit of other people's safety.

Each person will have to make their own decision every time you interact with a troll: how will I respond?

If you haven't started with the foundational response that you are not at fault, and this doesn't impinge on your self worth, stop reading this article and go read Justin's article "The Haters" instead.

If you do know you're not at fault, and you just don't have the emotional and mental space to participate in yet another trolling session, do what you need to do to protect your sanity and wellbeing. I have no intention to get in the way of that.

But. If you're comfortable. If you're unafflicted. If you're not often, or even currently, the target of the trolls, it will be tempting to consider only what is easy for you in that moment. And in that moment, I'd ask you to consider whether there was another response--harder, likely, to give--that you can make space for that would make your world, your community, your space a healthier, friendlier, less tolerant of *****;s, more welcoming to newcomers.

Is there a truth that needs telling? An untruth that needs correcting? Is there someone who might be watching these lies told unchecked in your community? Do you know how to correct "wrong" code loudly but not how to correct wrong behavior toward other humans?

I guess my main goal here is to encourage that, when you have the freedom and ability to address it--even if it makes you uncomfortable--the response to trolls shouldn't always just be ignore the trolls.

Some times we need to fight them, for the sake of the
truth.

Why You Shouldn't Always Ignore Trolls
 
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Social Media Trolls: A Practical Guide for Dealing With Impossible People
social-media-trolls.jpg

Trolls. Cute (yet ugly) and laughable. They give life to our tales, ballads and legends.

Social media trolls?

Not so much. They wreak havoc.

All a troll wants is to inflict pain, ridicule, and humiliate a targeted person.

Left alone, these little social media misfits will tarnish your brand and reputation.

But… that doesn’t mean you can’t deal with them—effectively.

You can. I’ll show you how.

What are social media trolls?
They’re people who deliberately provoke others online. By saying inflammatory and offensive things. They live to make people upset and angry.

People like your fans and followers.

They rant, post death threats, spew hate speech. They attack an opponent’s character. And say things to appeal to people’s feelings (rather than their intellect).

They’re foes— not friends—of your business. Clearly.

Don’t mix trolls up with angry customers.

The internet is filled with people stating their opinions. Including upset folk wanting to share their negative, but sincere, beliefs.

Not so with these digital devils.

Trolls often don’t believe a word they write. But say it anyway, just to piss off the others.

Simply stated… social media trolls = online bullies.

Where can they be found?

Trolls lurk online, wherever people comment, post and share with others. Like…
  • Social media, of course​
  • Internet chat rooms​
  • Email groups​
  • Discussion forums​
  • Blogs​
Internet trolls are nasty. They cause sleepless nights for you as a social media marketer. Same for your customer service agents.

So then, it’s good to know the difference between a troll with a goal versus a customer with a (genuine) rant.

Troll or upset customer?
Sometimes it’s hard to tell.

Both might appear irked, perhaps even furious or enraged.

Fine. Stay calm. Look at the substance of their words. That’s usually the tell-tale.

Listen and think about their motivation. Do they appear frustrated, stating a seemingly authentic claim about your business, product or service?

Do they seek truth?

Do they abide by social media etiquette?

Or… do they sound outraged, seething and trying to incite rage in your brand or in other users?If so, you’ve got yourself a live, social media troll—an internet misfit, in the digital flesh.

For the un-delighted customer, listen to them. They want to be heard. If you address and resolve their issue, they’ll be satisfied and those unhappy messages will cease.

But not the online troll. They won’t stop until they’re forced out or get bored.

Trolls aren’t looking for resolution. They want to engage in battle, one that nobody can win.

Whether a troll or unhappy customer, they have something in common… both want to be acknowledged.

Let’s dig deeper to help you determine if you’re dealing with a troll.

5 signs you’re dealing with a troll
1. They’ll try to make you angry
Trolls exist for the sole purpose of upsetting people.

Got someone on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat stirring up trouble? By starting arguments or posting inflammatory content?

They’re (probably) a troll. Especially if they appear to be insincere in their comments, posts, or statements.

2. They act entitled
Many trolls have an inflated sense of worth. They operate as if the world revolves around them (or that is should).

“Me, me, me… great, great, great. And all you others suck.” Or something like that.

If you get this sense, you’re probably infested with a detested troll.

3. They exaggerate
A lot.

They use strong words like “never” and “every.”

Where most others would say “infrequently” and “some.”

Using extremes and superlatives are ways to inflame people.

And a good sign you have a troll to deal with.

4. They make it personal
Discussions, debates, arguments—all safe game for healthy talks among your online users.

Until it gets personal.

Which is what trolls do.

Rather than discuss a matter, reasonably and logically, trolls attack an opponent’s character. They’ll call people names and say things to appeal to feelings and prejudices, rather than intellect.

5. They often can’t spell
Trolls seem to suck at spelling and grammar. They…
  • Spell words wrong​
  • Use words wrong​
  • Don’t capitalize first words of sentences​
  • Avoid commas and periods​
  • Mix up words that sound the same, but mean something different​
  • Say “I” a lot​
  • Same for “!!!” marks​
  • Type in all caps​
  • Use made up and goofy words throughout a nonsensical sentence​
Cornell and Stanford researchers did a study about anti-social behavior online.

Trolls fail standard, readability metrics for the stuff they write.

Including, using less positive words and more profanity.

fine that makes it WAAAY EEZIER to spot theez f!@%$%# digital SOCIOpaths!!! yaaaay happy daze!

As you can see, trolls give themselves away pretty easily.

Great. Now that you’ve confidently identified one… what do you do with them?

9 tips for handling trolls on social media
1. Establish a policy
Most social networks have community policies for ‘being respectful’.

Create one of your own, too, as reminder of acceptable behavior for posts, comments and shares.

Then, if someone acts unbecoming or dastardly, point them back to your policy.

“Hey Joe, I’m nudging you with this friendly reminder about our community policy.”

No need for them to take it personally when it’s written out, right?

Like how Photographer Brandon Stanton did with his Humans of New York project.

Brandon explained the comment moderation rules in a Facebook post. This made it simple for fans and followers to know and abide by the community rules.

social-media-trolls-1.png


2. Ignore them
Trolls cause negative reactions in others, because they want attention. So then…

Just. Ignore. Them.

Don’t fuel them.

They want you to get upset. Don’t give them the pleasure. Deprive them of their live force, so they’ll go dig elsewhere. This works.

Sometimes.

While you, as the social media admin, choose to ignore them, other well-meaning members might not. Now the troll is gaining the traction it craves and feeds on.

Inactivity is no longer an option.

No problem. Try a different strategy to avoid a tragedy.

3. Respond with facts
Are your trolls spreading rumors, wrong information, inaccuracies or outright lies?

Then disprove any tales told by trolls with facts.

Apple did.

With a response to #bendgate which began with this video. A lot of trolling followed rumors of the new ‘bending’ iPhone 6.

Apple took a stand. They admitted to an issue, which affected only nine customers in the first six days of going on sale.

Rather than deny, they accepted and disclosed. The controversy soon went away.

Do the same for your brand. Confess and address to rid the trolls of their fuel.

4. Diffuse with humor
Easy to say. Harder to do.

Done well, humor can humanize your brand and diffuse a situation.

Sainsbury’s groceries got it right.

They used Jujutsu to go with, not against, the flow when responding to a disappointing chicken sandwich.

social-media-trolls-2.png


Sainsbury pulled this off because they…
  • Didn’t ignore the customer
  • Recognized the problem
  • Apologized
  • Mirrored the criticism with a witty reply
However, if your joke falls flat, that could keep the troll on a roll.

5. Block or ban them
Most trolls, most of the time, are annoying. And usually harmless.

However, sometimes trolls take things too far. Like escalating to threats or hate speech.

When they do, you can use your social might to block or ban them. Also, check the standards for appropriate content for that social network. If the troll’s posts are in violation, submit a report.

6. Correct mistakes
Listen to what people say on your social media accounts.

If you catch a mistake:
  • Correct it
  • Let the person know what you did
  • Explain why
If they’re a disgruntled (and reasonable) customer, they’ll most likely appreciate it. Because…
  • You listened
  • You responded
  • You made them feel heard
Which is what we all want. And it can turn frustration into loyalty.

Unless they’re a troll.

They’ll not care.

But it’s all good anyway. Why? Because…
  • Your community will hear it
  • You showed that you’re listening
  • You re-enforced your standards for appropriate behavior
  • Everyone can see how professional you handled it
  • Other trolls will know not to mess with you
You can’t control what’s said. You can control how you respond to what’s said. All good things for your brand.

7. Don’t be baited
Similar to ignoring them, don’t feed them either.

If they’re trying to be be funny, your response could be just what they want for their pending punchline.

If you don’t respond, there’s no joke.

If you do respond, keep your cool. With the ways, and for the reasons, we explained above.

8. Don’t delete their posts
Because that can escalate their bad behavior.

Those Stanford-Cornell researchers say that taking extreme action against small infractions can heighten antisocial behavior.

They also found that if two users wrote posts of similar quality, and one user’s post got deleted “unfairly,” that user would be more likely to write something worse in the future.

9. Build a supportive, friendly community
Trolls are a fact of social media life.

Make them your friend.

Remember, your community is waiting to see how you handle them.

Think carefully and thoughtfully about your response to a troll. Then, post it.

The others will notice. You’ve given them a chance to police trolls for you. They’ll most likely chime in to make trolls feel unwelcome.

As Bradbury points out in his Guardian piece… Take the high road. Whether it’s a customer with a legitimate gripe, or a troll with no intention of a good outcome.

Being responsive and responsible will help you build a supportive community of followers. Ones that will respect and stand by you.

This will make life for trolls difficult. They’ll most likely move on to spill their digital bile elsewhere.

How to Deal With Social Media Trolls:
 

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file-20200810-18-1pbnooe.jpg

Trolls get creative when looking to deceive. Planet Flem/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Image

Political trolls adapt, create material to deceive and confuse
public

Gianluca Stringhini, Boston University, Savvas Zannettou, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History

August 13, 2020 8.09am EDT

Russian
-sponsored Twitter trolls, who so aggressively exploited social media to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election, didn’t stop when Donald Trump was elected president.

Even after the election, they remained active and adapted their methods, including using images – among them, easy-to-digest meme images such as Hillary Clinton appearing to run away from police – to spread their views. As part of our study to understand how these trolls operate, we analyzed 1.8 million images posted on Twitter by 3,600 accounts identified by Twitter itself as being part of Russian government-sponsored disinformation campaigns, from before the 2016 election through 2018, when those accounts were shut down by Twitter.

While our study focused on those specific accounts, it’s reasonable to assume that others exist and are still active. Until they were blocked by Twitter, the accounts we studied were sharing images about events in Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. – including divisive political events like the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. The images Russian government-backed trolls posted on Twitter appeared on other social networks, including Reddit, 4chan and Gab.

file-20200330-173884-b60o7k.png

Examples of memes shared online by Russian government-sponsored trolls. Zannettou et al., 2019.
Changing focus
What they posted shifted over time. We analyzed the actual images themselves, to identify the topics of the posts, and even depictions of public figures and specific locations. In 2014, most of these accounts began posting images related to Russia and Ukraine, but gradually transitioned to posting images about U.S. politics, including material about Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

This is consistent with some of our previous analysis of the text posts of these accounts, which showed they had changed their focus from Russian

Internet trolls use images strategically
Tweets posted by Russian-sponsored Twitter accounts contained images more often in the lead-up to the 2017 Charlottesville right-wing rally than at any point in the previous three years.​

2021-05-11-03-10-33.png


file-20200330-159520-v2pie3.png

Topics of posts from Russian-sponsored trolls on Twitter. Zannettou et al., 2019.
Spreading their ideas, and others’

We found that the Russian-backed accounts were both creating new propaganda and amplifying messages created by others. About 30% of the images they tweeted had not appeared on other social media or elsewhere on Twitter and were therefore likely created by the Russians behind the accounts. The remaining 70% had appeared elsewhere.

By analyzing how their posts spread across different social networks over time, we were able to estimate how much influence these accounts had on the discussions on other online services like Reddit and Gab.

We found that the accounts’ ability to spread political images varied by the social network. For instance, Russian-sponsored tweets about both parties were equally influential on Twitter, but on Gab their influence was mainly on spreading images of Democratic politicians. On Reddit, by contrast, the troll accounts were more influential at spreading images about Republican politicians.

[The Conversation’s science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories. Weekly on Wednesdays.]

Looking ahead
This research is an early step toward Loderstanding how disinformation campaigns use images. Our research provides a look at the past, but from what we have learned, we expect that information warriors will create more content themselves, and take advantage of material others create, to improve their strategies and effectiveness.

As the 2020 presidential election approaches, Americans should remain aware that Russians and others are still continuing their increasingly sophisticated efforts to mislead, confuse and spread social discord in the public.


Political trolls adapt, create material to deceive and confuse the public
 
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file-20190628-94688-rh7yob.jpg

Trump’s
poll numbers went up after high levels of Russian troll activity, though Clinton’s didn’t go down. AP/Mary Altaffer, Chuck Burton
Russian Twitter propaganda predicted 2016 US election polls
July 1, 2019 8.53pm AEST
Author Damian Ruck
  1. Post-Doctoral Researcher, University of Bristol​
When Robert Mueller completed his long awaited investigation into Russian interference inthe 2016 presidential election, he left many questions unanswered.
But one conclusion was unequivocal: Russia unleashed an extensive campaign of fake news and disinformation on social media with the aim of distorting U.S. public opinion, sowing discord and swinging the election in favor of the Republican candidate Donald Trump.

Because of Mueller’s work (and that of countless other journalists and academics) it can now be said with certainty that Russian trolls tried to change what Americans thought during the 2016 election.

The unanswered, and much harder question is: Were they successful?

In a statistical analysis published in First Monday , my team and I tracked the activity of Russian social media trolls on Twitter in the run up to the 2016 election.

We then compared the fluctuating popularity of this propaganda with that of the two presidential candidates: Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.

We found that exposure to Russian propaganda may have helped change American minds in favor of Republican candidate Trump.
2021-05-11-09-51-53.png


Conservatives mobilized
Our results show that the weeks when Russian trolls were accumulating likes and retweets on Twitter, that activity reliably foreshadowed gains for Trump in the opinion polls. This finding survived a number of our additional checks, including accounting for the popularity of Trump’s own personal Twitter account.

It turns out that the activity of Russian Twitter trolls was a better predictor of Donald Trump’s polling numbers than his own Twitter activity.

Yet Hillary Clinton’s popularity was not affected. That is particularly surprising given that much of the Russian propaganda was designed to discredit her.

Why did Russian propaganda mobilize Americans behind the unorthodox Donald Trump, yet fail to discourage people from supporting Clinton?

There are several possible reasons for this. The data suggests that Russian trolls targeted conservative-leaning voters who would not be likely to vote for Clinton in the first place. One example of that is when they used the December 2015 San Bernardino shooting to stoke fears of Muslim immigration. It was shortly after this that Donald Trump first mentioned his “Muslim ban” policy.

The targeting of conservatives was made more potent by the structure of the U.S. media ecosystem.

Because Fox News is the lone conservative network in mainstream U.S. media, there is plenty of space for alternative sources of conservative news. During the 2016 election, Breitbart (a highly partisan news website, once edited by Steve Bannon, who later became Donald Trump’s chief strategist) rapidly grew into this opening, becoming the second-most popular source for conservative news.
2021-05-11-09-52-35.png

However, Breitbart is extremely partisan and performs badly with fact-checkers, particularly when compared with mainstream networks. It was a sluice through which junk information flowed to conservative audiences, including conspiracies surrounding Clinton’s supposed financial ties to Saudi Arabia and near constant fear-mongering about immigration.

Social media has some special features that make it a virulent substrate for propaganda. The Russians exploited that.

In a traditional television election advertisement, the type political parties routinely purchased until recent years, the message is impersonal and the political intention is fully disclosed. Compare this to the Russian social media trolls who masqueraded as fake local newspapers and concerned members of the community. In doing this they cultivated a false trustworthiness that hid their true political intentions.

Affecting the election
My research suggests that Russian trolls helped shift U.S public opinion in Trump’s favor in 2016. But was this enough to affect the outcome of the election?

The answer is that we still don’t know. A closer look at the battleground states that were decided by handful of votes may give us an answer.

But given that all Clinton needed to flip the election in her favor was an additional 75,000 votes in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, it is a prospect that should be taken seriously.

2021-05-11-09-53-25.png

One scholar who does take this seriously is Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center and co-founder of FactCheck.org.

She points out that there was widespread disaffection on both sides of the political aisle during the campaign, meaning that more voters than usual were undecided.

Thirteen percent of voters didn’t make their final choice until the last week before the election. This last week happened to be a time when Russian Twitter trolls were at their most prolific, publishing many tweets disproportionately laden with emotional words eliciting anger and fear. Post-election analysis by CNN shows that the majority of the undecided 13% voted for Donald Trump

Russian Twitter propaganda predicted 2016 US election polls
 
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