Internet Trolling

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Internet trolling refers to the act of intentionally posting inflammatory, off-topic, or otherwise disruptive messages in online forums, discussion boards, or social media platforms with the primary intent of causing chaos or inciting a reaction from other users. Trolling can take many forms, including but not limited to: flaming, baiting, and gaslighting. Trolling is often done for the purpose of getting a reaction or attention, and not necessarily to contribute to the conversation or discussion at hand. A Pew Research Center survey published two years ago found that 70% of 18-to-24-year-olds who use the Internet had experienced harassment, and 26% of women that age said they’d been stalked online Trolling can occur on a variety of online platforms, including forums, social media sites, and video games. It is often characterized by the use of anonymity, with trolls often using fake identities or pseudonyms to avoid being held accountable for their actions. It can have consequences for the individuals targeted by the behavior and for the wider online community, and it can contribute to a toxic online environment that makes it harder for individuals to feel secure and confident in sharing their opinions and ideas.

Terminologies in Trolling

Flaming

Flaming is a type of online behavior that involves the use of excessively hostile or inflammatory language, often with the intention of provoking a reaction or starting a conflict. Flaming can take many different forms, including personal attacks, name-calling, and the use of offensive language. In some cases, flaming can escalate into more serious forms of online harassment and abuse, such as cyberbullying or hate speech.

Gaslighting

In the context of internet trolling, gaslighting refers to a tactic in which a person deliberately tries to manipulate another person into questioning their own perceptions or beliefs by presenting false information or denying the truth. This type of trolling is designed to sow confusion and distrust, and it can have serious consequences for the mental and emotional well-being of the person being targeted. It is often easier for perpetrators to hide their true identities or manipulate information in ways that are difficult for the person being targeted to detect. This can leave the person feeling confused, disoriented, and unsure of what to believe.

Baiting

Baiting is a type of internet trolling that involves deliberately posting inflammatory or provocative content in order to provoke an emotional or reactive response from others. This type of trolling often takes the form of inflammatory or controversial statements, pictures, or videos designed to evoke strong emotions such as anger, frustration, or fear. The goal of baiting is to get people to engage in arguments, fights, or heated discussions, thereby fueling the trolling behavior and attracting attention.

Video Game and Trolling

Popular Streamer and Toxicity in Game

Tyler1

Tyler1, also known by his online handle "Tyler1," is a popular streamer and professional player of the popular MOBA game League of Legends. He is known for his high-energy and often controversial streaming style, as well as his skill and proficiency at playing the game. He has a large following on Twitch, where he streams his gameplay and interactions with his audience. He's also been banned in the past for his toxic behavior in the game but later on Riot Games lifted the ban after he showed good behavior.

Tyler1's rise to fame was fueled in part by his trolling behavior, which involved deliberately inciting anger and frustration in other players, as well as making inappropriate and offensive comments. His aggressive play style and abrasive personality quickly made him a polarizing figure in the gaming community, with many people finding his behavior entertaining, while others viewed it as toxic and damaging to the online community. The problem claimed by the community of players and some streamers is that if streamers and professional players being toxic and trolling in game is not a huge problem, then it is unlikely for anyone follow the protocol and be polite to other players.

The Mechanism of Counter Trolling in Game

As many players and streamers say, the counter trolling mechanism has been failing in League of Legends. The system is actively detecting if there are words relating to racism or if there are direct dirty words contained. What this means is that as long as the players avoid the words, they can type whatever they want as long as they try to avoid key words that are scanned by the troll detection system. For instance, calling someone one trick dog does not get you banned anytime. The problem of the system is that if someone really gets banned, its punishment is not really hard enough. To the best the player will get banned from the game for about one day to a week. Majority of the trolls would start another account and play the game again and wait till his main account to get released. The credit system in the game is also not working as expected. People would not be polite to each other for the sake of skins and honor codes, they find those rewards lackluster and would be more willing to troll in the way they enjoy.

Competitive Games and Ethics issues behind

Competitive gaming refers to playing video games against other players in a competitive manner, often with the goal of winning. Addiction to competitive gaming, also known as "gaming disorder," is a condition in which a person becomes compulsively engaged in playing video games, to the point that it interferes with other aspects of their life. League of Legends perhaps is one of the best example on the competitive game and ethic issue, as its ranked games are hyper competitive especially when it gets to high elo. It is also not surprising that the games in high elo turns out to be extremely toxic. The reasoning behind the scene is that League of Legends is a super fun game, if players are on the winning side. They will get dopamine rush in their head every time they land a kill, hit a skill shot, by the time the game ends your head would be full of dopamine and people usually feel super hyped by it. However, if the player is losing, then it is very unlikely to get the feeling of dopamine rush in head as they are winning. So once player lose, they are so raged because they need the dopamine back, as a result they immediately queue up again for one more game. Trolling and flaming usually happen when player know they are losing, they realize there is no point to continue, but they need a way to unleash the eagerness for dopamine. Since it is known that there would not be harsh punishment, flaming the teammate who made mistake becomes the best choice. The more players play, the more tied they are to the cycle.

1. Play the game for dopamine
2. Lose to the enemy
3. Raged, so troll and flame
4. Go back to the first step

It has been observed that people addicted to ranked games has become easily raged, and they lose interest to anything other than the game, as it gives the best reward, the huge amount of dopamine. The reason Riot does not give harsh punishment is just to keep the players playing, because as they play more, they are more likely to pay for in game content. Trying to get game environment better is like getting the company's revenue low, so there is not much motivation to be done.

Social Media and Trolling

Twitter, the Lawless Land of Internet

Due to the minimal amount of censorship, trolling, racism, sexism are rampant on Twitter. The new Boss of the Company, Elon Musk, also happens to encourage twitter to have less censorship and regulation. The Boss however is also known for his trolling behaviors like flaming people and having insulting polls. It has been reported by researchers that training modern Artificial Intelligence on Twitter would end up an AI with a lot of trolling behaviors and stereotypes. Diving deep into the social media, it can be noticed that Twitter almost does not have a clear rule for anyone to be banned. No censorship or verification is taking place, the system would not ban anyone from distributing any kind of information, whether it is pornography or trolling posts/comments . Twitter had some ways of tagging trolling and dangerous content, but Elon Musk's decisions made it into a pure madness by lifting the detection of trolling on twitter. The amount of N words, F words, bombards after he took the company into hand, there is no active punishment even if the user harshly flames others . Protecting the Right of Free Speech is accidentally encouraging people to troll without worries.

Reddit and Karma System

Reddit has been trying to minimize the negative effect of trolls. The karma system for a user indicates how many times other users approve/like the comment or disapprove/dislike the comment. Negative Karma simply means the user has been trolling all along, and some people with minimum -100 karma will get their comments sometimes auto hidden by the system. People tend to care about their karma because it means your words will be respected. Reddit pays special attention to the throwaway accounts created by people, and there is also trolling protection by limiting those new accounts from trolling freely.