Troll
Troll is a term used on the Internet referring to a person who makes incendiary remarks or provocative comments with malicious intent. Their statements are usually purposefully offensive or completely off-topic, in order to draw attention to themselves and engage others in pointless conversation. Trolls are active users of various websites such as chatrooms, blogs, message boards, online memorials, and are also very abundant in online video game environments. These types of people also tend to blend in with the rest of the community until they decide it is time to start causing havoc. Often times, a discovered troll will be isolated and ridiculed by the community as a whole because their sole intent was to harm and disrupt the community.
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Term Derivation
The word "trolling" or "troll" comes from a style of fishing. This particular method involves dragging bait through a hole or space in the hopes of getting a bite. [1] This parallels to the Internet-related use of the word because trolls often post seditious comments to provoke reactions from other users or readers.
Levels of Trolling [2]
Trolls tally their successes from LULZ, a play on the LOL abbreviation for laugh out loud. LULZ are incidents where trolls gain happiness from emotionally damaging others. "Lulz is watching someone lose their mind at their computer 2,000 miles away while you chat with friends and laugh," said one ex-troll.[3] The goal of trolls is to maximize LULZ, in other words, maximize the harm brought to others.
Level One
This level is known as "playtime". Trolls operating on this level are simply concerned with instant gratification. They are very blunt with their comments or attacks and are very easy to spot. These attacks are usually pretty unimaginative and posted to simply incite an argument. Playtime trolls tend to lack an in-depth understanding of the topic, personal information, a unique perspective or a sense of humor.
Level Two
Also known as the "tactical" level, trolls here are a bit more serious about their purpose. The created persona tends to be more credible and uses recognizable techniques of the particular forum they are posting on. These attacks are more subtle and as a result, more difficult to identify as trolling. They might be inclined to engage in off-site email dialogue. Tactical trolls win trust of others through these e-mails and become harder to detect.
Level Three
"Strategic" trolls take the game of trolling extremely seriously. They tend to employ strategies that have taken months or years to develop. Additionally, trolls at this level may operate in a group or use multiple personalities making it exponentially more difficult to find and isolate the perpetrators. Sometimes, users will use their multiple accounts to attack themselves and further provoke reactions from other users.
Level Four
The final level of trolling is "domination". This is the most rare type of trolling because it is very involved. "Domination" trolling involves creating and running a forum. The reward for these trolls is knowing they are emotionally dominating the lives of their users. These types of trolls sometimes cross into the real-world because they sometimes will contact people outside of the site they operate.
Ethical Implications
There are many ethical implications of the mischievous behaviors of Internet trolls and their deliberate abuse of online privacy. Trolls typically hide behind the anonymity provided by online environments, which allows them to act nonsensically and avoid the repercussions. The act of trolling inflicts intentional harm on a online community through the posting of emotionally abusive remarks and/or counterproductive remarks that create confusion between users. Trolls infiltrate an online community and detract others from interacting in the community. The contributions of a troll are not positive. The troll may be entertained or gain satisfaction from his or her actions, but it is at the expense of the rest of the community. [4]. Trolls also violate trust created in an online environment and can cause other users to refrain from creating and nurturing trust in various online environments.
The actions of trolls are also known to shut down "comment" and discussion features on YouTube videos and other social media sites. Trolls purposely spark arguments between users on topics that are frequently either unrelated or untrue arguments. To prevent trolls from creating further harm in communities where they have posted, YouTube and other social media sites end the discussion or revoke the ability of users to comment on their website though discussion is typically helpful and encouraged. Trolls' accounts can be banned on a case by case basis but it can be argued that this is unethical censorship. Controversy is not necessarily a negative thing but the controversy may be unwarranted. E-community moderators continue to debate whether it is best to permit trolls to take part in a community or ban trolls to foster a balanced community.
Some trolling activities can constitute targeting an individual with insults or degradation. These activities then translate to incidents of cyberbullying.
Legal Action
In a court case from September 2011, an internet troll, Sean Duffy, was jailed for his remarks made online. Duffy was involved in vandalizing tribute pages of many young victims of crimes and suicides, known as RIP Trolling. Additionally, Duffy created his own YouTube videos and mock tribute pages to further torture the victims' friends and families. After being linked to harassing and creating several of these pages and videos, Duffy was finally punished for his trolling offenses. He plead guilty to two counts of sending vindictive messages relating to one victim, and asked for his other offenses to be considered in the same case. In the end, Duffy was sentenced to 18 weeks in jail in addition to a 5 year antisocial behavior order to prohibit Duffy from utilizing any forms of social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube. It was reported that Duffy suffered from Asperger's Syndrome, but this was never confirmed. Police commented on the case saying they would continue to track down trolls like Duffy, demonstrating a clear precedent for trolling on the Internet [5].
Possible Solutions
When faced with a troll, the only true solution is to completely ignore his or her comments and actions [6]. This way, there is nothing for the troll to feed on, as a troll typically thrives when his target audience is engaged in a conversation or argument.
There have been many other attempts at suppressing trolls, such as suspension of accounts, implementing muting features, and adding methods of reporting unacceptable behavior. These attempts seem to be less effective due to the anonymity and sheer volume of trolls in online settings. Trolls are almost impossible to permanently remove as they can easily change their IP addresses and create new accounts at forums, message boards, and other communities.
See Also
References
- ↑ http://www.flayme.com/troll/
- ↑ http://www.jfo.org.uk/info/new/troll.htm
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/magazine/03trolls-t.html?pagewanted=1
- ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)
- ↑ http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/13/internet-troll-jailed-mocking-teenagers
- ↑ http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/troll-tactics.html
