Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
What’s confusing you
Is the nature of my game
- The Rolling Stones
The reason that Internet trolls are effective is that people still don’t understand their game.
There are 15 commonly-used trolling tactics [3] to disrupt, misdirect and control [4] internet discussions.
As one interesting example, trolls start flame wars because – according to two professors – swearing and name-calling shut down our ability to think and focus [5].
And trolls will often spew divisive attacks so that people argue against each other, instead of bad actions and policies of the powers-that-be. For example, trolls will [3]:
Start a religious war whenever possible using stereotypes like “all Jews are selfish”, “all Christians are crazy” or “all Muslims are terrorists”.
Yesterday, the alternative news site Common Dreams caught a troll [6]using scores of different user names to spew anti-Semitic bile. (Common Dreams discovered that the same troll was behind the multiple user names by tracking their IP addresses. And the troll confessed to Common Dreams.)
The troll is a “a Jewish Harvard graduate in his thirties who was irritated by the website’s discussion of issues involving Israel”.
He posted anti-Semitic diatribes – such as Hitler should have finished the job and killed all Jews – using one alias. Then – a couple of minutes later – he’d post an attack on the first poster using a different alias, claiming that criticism of Israel is the same thing as anti-Semitism. (Note: Holocaust survivors and Israeli ministers say it’s not [7].)
Why would a Jew post vile anti-Semitic comments? Because normal people are offended by – and don’t want to be associated with – pure, naked anti-Semitism, and so they will avoid such discussions. If the discussion was originally criticizing a specific aspect of Israeli policy, the discussion will break down, and the actual point regarding policy will be lost.
Similarly, anti-Semitic posts weaken websites by making them seem less reputable. Indeed, Common Dreams says that the troll’s anti-Semitic comments drove away many of that site’s largest donors … dealing a severe blow to its continued viability. That’s exactly what trolls spewing anti-Semitic bile are trying to do: shut down logical discussion and discredit and weaken sites which allow rational criticism of policy.
It is well-known that foreign governments and large companies troll online. See this [8], this [9] this [10], and this [11]. For example, the Israeli government is paying students [12] to post pro-Israeli comments [13] online.
And American students are also attempting to influence internet discussion [14].
While the Common Dreams troll claims that he’s not sponsored by the state of Israel, government [15] agencies [16] have manipulated [17] Internet [18] discussion for years. This includes the use of multiple “socket puppet” [19] aliases. The potential for mischief is stunning [20].
Unless we learn their game …