Online trolls: Out from under the bridge

Just ignore them. Boys will be boys. It’s all for the lulz. Don’t feed the trolls. If you’ve been online lately, then you know that the internet is often a very unpleasant place. We’ve come to call the online bad apples trolls, and their provocations are labeled as trolling. The term is dismissive, a reflection of trolls’ original insistence that what they’re doing shouldn’t be taken seriously. Trolls “write provocative and offensive posts specifically to elicit reaction,” claimed [a 2012 Guardian article]( that compared trolls to imps and their behavior to prank calls. Trollish behavior predates the web; insults, facetious arguments, and harassment were [rife on Usenet]( the newsgroup network started in 1980. And acting like a jerk is an inescapable part of human nature. Trolling was accepted as normal, if undesirable, even as evidence of its harmful effects—[suicides]( and [intense trauma](. That changed with the 2016 US presidential election. In November of 2016, online searches for [“troll” peaked,]( according to Google trends. The US election was grounds for well-organized, coordinated trolling, including [Russian troll farms](. Since then, trolls have become associated with the alt-right, disinformation campaigns, and online hate speech. When there are enough trolls to have broad political impact, it seems, their tactics aren’t quite so funny. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( [Quartz Daily Obsession] Online trolls March 18, 2020 The joke that went wrong --------------------------------------------------------------- Just ignore them. Boys will be boys. It’s all for the lulz. Don’t feed the trolls. If you’ve been online lately, then you know that the internet is often a very unpleasant place. We’ve come to call the online bad apples trolls, and their provocations are labeled as trolling. The term is dismissive, a reflection of trolls’ original insistence that what they’re doing shouldn’t be taken seriously. Trolls “write provocative and offensive posts specifically to elicit reaction,” claimed [a 2012 Guardian article]( that compared trolls to imps and their behavior to prank calls. Trollish behavior predates the web; insults, facetious arguments, and harassment were [rife on Usenet]( the newsgroup network started in 1980. And acting like a jerk is an inescapable part of human nature. Trolling was accepted as normal, if undesirable, even as evidence of its harmful effects—[suicides]( and [intense trauma](. That changed with the 2016 US presidential election. In November of 2016, online searches for [“troll” peaked,]( according to Google trends. The US election was grounds for well-organized, coordinated trolling, including [Russian troll farms](. Since then, trolls have become associated with the alt-right, disinformation campaigns, and online hate speech. When there are enough trolls to have broad political impact, it seems, their tactics aren’t quite so funny. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( By the digits [2,000,000:]( Trolls the Chinese government is suspected of hiring to add disinformation to social media [70%:]( Share of 18-to-24-year-olds who have experienced harassment online [300,000:]( Followers right-wing troll Milo Yiannopoulos had when he was permanently banned from Twitter [150,000:]( Members of the Reddit discussion group ”fatpeoplehate” when it was banned in 2015 [10.4 million:]( Russian tweets reviewed in a report commissioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee to investigate interference in the 2016 US presidential election [300,000:]( Followers the Russian Instagram account @blackstagram_ amassed ahead of the 2016 election [40,000:]( “Words of hate” British comedian Stewart Lee gathered about himself by reading online comments for six months Giphy Explain it like I’m 5! The psychology of trolling --------------------------------------------------------------- Excluding a handful of identifiable leaders, the vast majority of trolls are anonymous, hiding behind either fake identities or internet avatars. This anonymity is key to the psychology of why people troll. When individual identities are hidden, psychologists say this “deindividuation” allows social norms to collapse. It happens offline too—one famous experiment shows children are far more likely to steal money on Halloween when they trick-or-treat in groups wearing masks, as opposed to unmasked and alone. “Deindividuation is what happens when we get behind the wheel of a car and feel moved to scream abuse at the woman in front who is slow in turning right,” [Tim Adams writes in The Guardian](. “It is what motivates a responsible father in a football crowd to yell crude sexual hatred at the opposition or the referee.” Ashley Feinberg [traces the history of trolling]( for Gizmodo, writing, “anonymity not only made users feel free from the repercussions that might otherwise give them pause, but it also dehumanized potential targets. In other words, the internet gave all our worst impulses just what they needed to thrive.” Not everyone who can hide behind an internet mask devolves into trolling, though. [Research has shown]( a link between self-identified trolls and specific personality traits including sadism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. Sadism—the enjoyment of others’ suffering—has a particularly strong link with trolling behavior. giphy IRL (sort of) Remote working gets less remote --------------------------------------------------------------- Quartz is hosting a series of remote workshops, open to the public, to help ease the transition from office to home office. Thursday, at 11am EST, we’ll be featuring curated tips, advice, and inspiration from remote-work veterans and newbies, plus a solid slate of speakers from Quartz and elsewhere. Learn more and [sign up here, then take a deep breath](. [Sign up now!]( Quotable “Boys throw stones at frogs in fun, but the frogs do not die in fun, but in earnest.” —[Greek philosopher Bion of Borysthenes, as quoted by The Verge]( Giphy pop quiz Where did the term “troll” come from? Wired magazineCult of the Dead Cow BBS2600: The Hacker Quarterlyalt.folklore.urban Correct. The earliest known use was on this newsgroup for the discussion of urban legends, on the early-internet forum Usenet, where the term “spam” also comes from. Incorrect. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. Giphy Department of Jargon Defining a troll --------------------------------------------------------------- Merriam-Webster dictionary includes “to harass, criticize, or antagonize (someone) especially by provocatively disparaging or mocking public statements, postings, or acts” as a definition of to troll. The world “troll” refers both to the ugly, menacing figures who live under bridges in Scandinavian folklore, and the method of fishing by trailing a baited hook from a moving boat. The word has been used to describe antagonistic behavior since [at least 1992]( when it was an established term on Usenet. Several other languages refer to similar concepts for trolling. “Tsuri” [in Japanese]( and “naksi” in Korean both translate as “fishing” and are used to describe online trolling. Those who engage and take the bait sometimes [refer to themselves]( as “caught fish.” The concept is hardly universal though; in Thailand, the [word “krian,”]( which literally describes a close-cut schoolboy hairstyle, is the term for troll. Have a friend who would enjoy our Obsession with Online trolls? [ [Forward link to a friend](mailto:?subject=Thought you'd enjoy.&body=Read this Quartz Daily Obsession email – to the email – Brief history [1970s:]( CommuniTree, a pre-internet forum on modem-linked computers, is invaded by teenagers. The founders decide to shut it down because of an overwhelming onslaught of insults and abuse. [1993:]( AOL offers Usenet access to its users, leading to a massive expansion of trolling tactics. [2006:]( A 30-year-old network administrator posts a fake ad on Craigslist pretending to be a woman seeking a male partner for BDSM sex. He then publishes the names, pictures, emails, and phone numbers of the 100 men who replied. An anonymous plaintiff later sues and is awarded [$75,000 in damages](. [2006:]( When 18-year-old Nikki Catsouras dies in a car crash, online trolls harass her family, emailing them photos of her corpse. [2007:]( Megan Meier dies by suicide after receiving unkind messages from a boy on MySpace. The account turns out to be fake, and created by Lori Drew, the mother of one of the 13-year-old’s classmates. [2012:]( A British man is jailed after posting abusive “jokes” about a missing child on Facebook. [2014:]( Women in gaming are subject to an unrelenting series of coordinated attacks and doxxing, which forces them from their homes in a harassment campaign that becomes known as Gamergate. [2015:]( A Russian troll farm, where people were hired to post pro-Putin messages online, is exposed. [2019:]( The founder of neo-Nazi site the Daily Stormer is ordered to pay $14 million in damages for ordering his “troll army” to attack a Jewish woman. This one weird trick! A political weapon --------------------------------------------------------------- Trolls have been wreaking online havoc for years. Their tactics of spreading disinformation and harassment, which were largely dismissed by authorities when they were [targeted at women]( and people of color, came to be seen as less impish and more evil when they were directed at the 2016 US election. Russia’s Internet Research Agency, which is devoted to spreading propaganda, [overwhelmed social media]( in 2015-2016 with memes designed to discourage voter turnout, misleading some Americans into texting their votes. A report commissioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee found that IRA accounts had millions of engagements on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Many of their accounts were popular: 40% of IRA Instagram accounts had more than 10,000 followers, and the agency amassed 3.3 million followers on Facebook. Of the 33 most popular IRA Facebook accounts, half were focused on black audiences. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, [analyzed these messages]( to show how Russian trolls successfully influenced the 2016 US presidential election. Plenty of other countries have long been in on this tactic. A study from Harvard University estimates that the Chinese government posts around [448 million fabricated social media]( posts a year; Iran has been using false Facebook accounts to spy on the US [since 2011](. Individuals have also been the victims of coordinated politically-motivated attacks. Before the journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered, the Saudi government ordered trolls to harass him. “The mornings were the worst for him because he would wake up to the equivalent of sustained gunfire online,” Maggie Mitchell Salem, a friend of Khashoggi’s, [told the New York Times](. Watch this! Inside the world of trolls --------------------------------------------------------------- New Yorker writer Andrew Marantz spent three years embedded with online trolls to understand what motivates them, how their views are spreading, and how we can learn to fight back. take me down this 🐰 hole! Zoë Quinn is a game developer who was one of the central figures targeted by online threats of violence that crossed over into very IRL harassment in Gamergate. She wrote a book about Gamergate, online misogyny, trolls, and the internet called [Crash Override]( that came out in 2017. She spoke with Adi Robertson at [The Verge for this Q&A]( and with Sarah Jeong at [the New York Times for an article]( that was part of a larger series about the legacy of Gamergate. Giphy poll Have you ever been trolled? [Click here to vote]( Yes.No.I’m not sure I’d call it trolling, but I’ve had some unpleasant exchanges online. 💬 let's talk! In yesterday’s poll about [snails]( 50% of you said you’d give “snail caviar” a go, 43% said “you couldn’t pay me to do that,” and 7% of you have tried it. 🤔 [What did you think of today’s email?](mailto:obsession%2Bfeedback@qz.com?cc=&subject=Thoughts%20about%20online%20trolls%20&body=) 💡 [What should we obsess over next?](mailto:obsession%2Bideas@qz.com?cc=&subject=Obsess%20over%20this%20next.&body=) [🎲]( [Show me a random Obsession]( Today’s email was written by [Olivia Goldhill]( edited by [Annaliese Griffin]( and produced by [Tori Smith](. [facebook]( The correct answer to the quiz is alt.folklore.urban. 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