Both trolls and sadists feel sadistic glee at the distress of others. Sadists just want to have fun … and the Internet is their playground.
Sometimes, throwing your two cents into an online conversation can feel about as foolhardy as taking a woodland stroll during hunting season while sporting your finest set of deer antlers.
All too often, pressing "submit" on a comment runs the risk of attracting unwanted attention from the legions of so-called trolls who can be found lurking in the dark corners of chat rooms, online forums and website comment sections. This most-despised class of Internet ne'er-do-wells is so universally hated that even the wordsmiths at Oxford University struggle to find nice things to say about them:
Anti-trolling 101
Everyone has their own thoughts about trolls and how to deal with them. Here are some comments on dealing with trolls posted by readers to the Times Free Press Facebook page:* “I like to try and out-troll them. … I like to dissect [their comment] right there ‘on the table’ for the troll and everyone else to see. When presented with their own weakness or being shown for the fools they are by using science, they usually tuck tail and run.” — Jonas Luttrell, Signal Mountain* “I usually ignore [trolls’] comments … but then sometimes I like a good debate [and] try testing their knowledge. Most of the time, they aren’t as smart as they think they are! My response usually depends on the subject.” — Cathy Boger Kellerhals, Tunnel Hill, Ga.* “I just ignore them. When I get off Facebook, they cease to exist to me. I don’t allow them the power to affect my day.” — Brent Hinson, Chattanooga* “I had [a troll] call me a lesbian as though it was an insult and told me that, since I am a lesbian, he knows I am also uneducated. I’m happily married to a man.” — Brooke Goins, Ringgold, Ga.* “Sometimes, inflammatory statements are valid points that the majority reject, about issues and different views of those issues. Sometimes … trolls are just big, ol’ buttheads. Very often.” — Micah Needham, Chattanooga* “I usually just post some facts to their posts. Then they respond with something just as insane as they first stated. Then I post another fact or two. That usually makes them go away. They HATE facts.” — Debra Fisher, Ooltewah* “Internet trolls are a scourge. They’re ignorant, spite-filled, attention-seeking, petulant children.” — Heather Kilgore, Rossville, Ga.* “I refuse to respond to their comments [and instead], only to those that aren’t [from] trolls. They hate it, cause they do it for the attention anyway.” — Kristi Wilkey, Soddy-Daisy* “Negative people can only come up with inflammatory comments. It’s what they do! What I do is keep stating my point.” — Trecia Watson, Cleveland, Tenn.* “Most [trolls] are pretty stupid. Or worse, they’re educated and confuse themselves with being intelligent, which are not the same. So I usually just make them look dumber than they already are.” — Shane Deason, Cleveland, Tenn.* “I ignore them outright, no matter what they say. Once identified as a troll, they become invisible to me. … I block trolls left and right. Even if they are commenting on a thread I’m in, I can’t see it.” — Ron Pemberton, Chattanooga* “I pay ‘em no mind as long as they stay under the bridge.” — Gary Ellis, Chattanooga
Trolls beware …
The following types of posts are in violation of Facebook’s community guidelines:* Serious threats of harm to public and personal safety[,] … credible threats of physical harm to individuals … [and] specific threats of theft, vandalism or other financial harm.”* Content that promotes or encourages suicide or any other type of self-injury, including self-mutilation and eating disorders” or “that identifies victims or survivors of self-injury or suicide and targets them for attack, either seriously or humorously.”* Bullying or harass[ing] … content that appears to purposefully target private individuals with the intention of degrading or shaming them.”* Credible threats to public figures, as well as hate speech directed at them.”* [Posts that] facilitate or organize criminal activity that causes physical harm to people, businesses or animals, or financial damage to people or businesses.”* Solicitation of sexual material, any sexual content involving minors, threats to share intimate images, and offers of sexual services … includ[ing] prostitution, escort services, sexual massages, and filmed sexual activity.”* Any attempts by unauthorized dealers to purchase, sell, or trade prescription drugs and marijuana.”* Photographs … displaying genitals or focusing in on fully exposed buttocks[,] … some images of female breasts if they include the nipple, … explicit images of sexual intercourse. … Descriptions of sexual acts that go into vivid detail may also be removed.”* Content that directly attacks people based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex/gender/gender identity or serious disabilities or diseases.”* Graphic images when they are shared for sadistic pleasure or to celebrate or glorify violence.”
"A person who makes a deliberately offensive or provocative online post."
Often driven by a malicious desire to sow dissent and inflame passions - sometimes through personal attacks - when a troll sets sights on a commenter, the end result can be an exchange that ends in frustration, anger and hurt feelings.
"I can't decide if they do it because they're miserable in their own lives or because they're under the illusion that they're awesome and can say and do whatever they want without the fear of consequence," says Taryn Hendrix Painter. "They're just there to stir up trouble."
A 35-year-old third-grade teacher at Apison Elementary School, Painter was stunned by a troll's response to her post on a Knoxville TV station's Facebook page about teenagers who were involved in the April riots in Baltimore.
"If the parents were in control of their children, they wouldn't be a part of that crowd to begin with," she wrote.
She says she assumed her comment was innocuous, but the troll's reply - which since has been removed from the page - made fun of Painter's weight and suggested that she was setting a poor example for her daughter. Painter says she was baffled by the message because it honed in on personal details about her - her appearance and her family - that were not publicly available on her profile.
Despite the wave of sympathetic and supportive counter-replies posted by other users, the troll's post still stings, she says.
"It broke my heart," Painter says. "He doesn't know me and he had no business bringing my 2-year-old into his hateful comments. I simply responded with 'Classy.' My friends and several strangers came to my defense, but those words will be burned into my mind forever."
The troll toll
According to a survey of more than 1,100 Internet users by online pollster YouGov.com, 28 percent of Americans admit to having participated in a trolling exchange, which the site defined as "malicious online activity directed at somebody [you don't] know." About 10 percent of respondents said they had posted a comment so offensive that a site moderator removed it.
More than three-quarters of the YouGov poll respondents said they believe trolling activity is fueled by the perception of anonymity inherent to many online interactions.
Many websites plagued by trolls are finding ways to curtail such activity outright or to give their users ways of filtering out unwanted and offensive content.
In 2013, YouTube revamped its video-commenting system by giving higher placement to messages from the channel's creator or "engaged discussions" about the video. The site also offered new tools to moderate comments by blocking certain words and establishing an approval process for new posts.
Facebook long has enforced a "real name" policy that requires users to associate their account with the name they are known by offline. Although the requirement has attracted its share of protests from some users, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended the policy in a Q&A earlier this year with the website Buzzfeed, saying the restriction is designed to remove the protective shroud of anonymity that encourages abusive behaviors such as harassment and trolling.
""[The policy] helps keep people safe," Zuckerberg said. "We know that people are much less likely to try to act abusively towards other members of our community when they're using their real names."
While news sites often are hotbeds for troll activity, they also lurk in unexpected places.
"My staff will decide who is the troll," writes Ed Stetzer, author of popular Christian blog Christianity Today in a 2014 post explaining the site's commenting policy. "Even if you are just posting Bible verses over and over (as recently happened), you are still a troll."
The seventh entry - of nine - on Stetzer's list of commenting commandments echoes the traditional Internet wisdom to not "feed the trolls" by responding to their comments. Like a fire deprived of oxygen, trolls are attention-seekers and absent a reply, he argues, they soon will go away.
"Arguing with a troll just distracts from the conversation and feeds their need for validation," Stetzer advises. "Ignore them when they appear."
Some organizations are taking more drastic measures to oust trolls. Although trolling is currently not designated as an illegal activity in the U.S., other countries are tamping down on it, including New Zealand and the United Kingdom, where it is punishable by up to two years in prison.
"The sending of abusive messages or material online can cause absolute misery for victims, and we need to make sure that people who commit these awful crimes are properly punished," writes U.K. Justice Minister Chris Grayling in a press release published in October 2014. "We already have offences in place to deal with this appaling behaviour, but we've toughened up the law and those who commit the most serious offenses face a longer prison sentence."
Others have sought to take away the trolls' soapbox. In 2013, Popular Science announced it was ending its commenting system because "comments can be bad for science."
"As the news arm of a 141-year-old science and technology magazine, we are as committed to fostering lively, intellectual debate as we are to spreading the word of science far and wide," reads a Popular Science post on Sept. 24, 2013, explaining the policy shift. "The problem [arises] when trolls and spambots overwhelm the former, diminishing our ability to do the latter.
"We have many delightful, thought-provoking commenters [b]ut even a fractious minority wields enough power to skew a reader's perception of a story. Because comments sections tend to be a grotesque reflection of the media culture surrounding them, the cynical work of undermining bedrock scientific doctrine is now being done beneath our own stories, within a website devoted to championing science."
In 2012, the Times Free Press stopped allowing comments on news stories on its website, while still allowing them on opinion pieces. In a column announcing the change, Managing Editor Alison Gerber noted that:
"Too often, commenters post statements that simply are not accurate; sometimes they attack the person who is the subject of a story. In too many cases, the online conversations descend into poisonous exchanges with comments that are cruel, rage-filled, racist or brimming with words you wouldn't want your mother to hear you utter."
While the paper tried to remove those comments, "it's nearly impossible to police every one and, even if an inappropriate or inaccurate comment is up only for a short time, it can damage the reputation of a person, a business, the newspaper," she said.
'Agents of chaos'
Like children pulling off the wings of flies, academics say, trolls thrive on spreading misery. In 2014, Canadian researchers released findings from "Trolls Just Want to Have Fun," a study directly linking trolling behavior with a tendency toward "Machiavellianism," psychopathy and - most strongly - sadism.
The study was published in the September 2014 issue of the psychology journal Personality and Individual Differences. Researchers polled more than 400 American respondents who were recruited online and asked to fill out a personality questionnaire that included queries about trolling and other online behavior.
What researchers discovered was that trolls take pleasure in causing offense. The study showed that personal enjoyment - sadism - was the key motivator for almost half of Internet trolls.
"Much like the Joker [of comic book fame], trolls operate as agents of chaos on the Internet, exploiting 'hot-button issues' to make users appear overly emotional or foolish in some manner," the study reads. "If an unfortunate person falls into their trap, trolling intensifies for further, merciless amusement.
"It might be said that online trolls are prototypical everyday sadists. We found clear evidence that sadists tend to troll because they enjoy it. Both trolls and sadists feel sadistic glee at the distress of others. Sadists just want to have fun and the Internet is their playground."
Many self-described trolls say they don't worry whether their comments are offensive, so long as they receive some kind of response. In pursuit of their goal, trolls say, they will do just about anything, from playing the role of a zealous extremist on hot-button issues to using language that's fundamentally offensive and designed to force a reply.
"When I was for real 'trolling,' I did a race-baiting [post] that got thousands of responses. At the time I was pretty proud, but [I] am embarrassed by it now," writes a self-described troll who lived in Chattanooga for more than a decade and who posts under the alias "James Crowley."
Sometimes, trolls rationalize their actions by suggesting their intention is to spark a debate or offer alternate viewpoints on a topic.
Patrick Todaro, 27, is the manager of a "corporate casual dining steakhouse in East Brainerd." He says he has been actively trolling the Facebook pages of local media sites since the lead-up to the 2008 presidential election but ramped up his efforts during the 2012 election.
Politically conservative - "almost stereotypical," he admits - Todaro says he tends to troll most enthusiastically on stories that touch on subjects such as welfare, elections, "personal expression" and anything regarding the Second Amendment. Ideally, he says, he would love for his comments to sway people to his way of thinking but, if not, he's content merely to inflame passions.
"[I hope] that maybe I got through to someone. Maybe there will be one more informed person and one less 'sheep,'" Todaro says. "I hope to educate people, although I will admit that almost never works out, so I just enjoy getting them worked up."
Often, however, trolls admit they don't even agree with what they post.
Now based on the West Coast, Crowley, 37, says he, too, was primarily trying to get a rise out of people when he made inflammatory posts to websites in the early '90s, using public computers at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
"I would mass-post messages that I did not sincerely believe simply to get a reaction," he says. "I think I stopped around the time I was old enough to buy cigarettes."
Nowadays, Crowley says, he primarily posts to social networks, forums and mainstream and student media websites, including the Times Free Press. Even though he no longer considers himself a troll - and generally posts things about which he is more sincere - he says he often is accused of trolling when he writes something politically incorrect.
Not that that's any serious impediment, he admits.
"I get to express my ideas without much fear of retaliation from [social justice warrior] busybodies or judgment from friends and family," he says. "[I get to] explore ideas that are unable to be expressed under my actual identity [and] learn something more about the world from people's responses and see things as they are and help others do likewise."
Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.