I interviewed hundreds of trolls. Everything I thought I knew about them was wrong

submitted by Mnemonic from abc.net.au

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[–]Mnemonic[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I've thought about this for a bit, I see your concerns but I think we don't share the same concept of 'trolls'.

A troll is not someone who has an opposing opinion, it's someone who uses 'meta-methods' of controlling the 'conversation':

  • Multiple accounts (classic forum-trolling, where the name came from)

  • Calling in 'friends' without arguments (Same as above, but with 'real' people).

  • Harassment IRL and Online.

  • Infiltration/undercover to blow things up (aka pretend to be 'one of the guys' and one night spam the forum with illegal content)

This https://saidit.net/s/SaidIt/comments/bzk/saiditnet_feb_4_2019_new_rule_no_upvoting/ is a troll silencing method.

Law enforcement involvement: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/02/bomb-threat-hoaxer-exposed-by-hacked-gaming-site/

I know the term 'trolling' has been shifted over to just 'people with different Ideas' for some groups, but the things this article describes are a thing and though it may be in normie terms and the 'troll-master Mark' might have had a ego-trip during the interview, it does sketch the way he thinks about it himself and how awful it can be to be targeted when you are a normal person who has all their info posted on their public facebook.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Per your description; we have the same definition of trolls.

They're basically online gangs of punk assholes who sometimes make people's lives miserable. They can be relentless in their harassment, and occasionally take things too far. The original members of anonymous are a good example of a troll group, until some whitehats commandeered the name during the Arab spring.

They are not highly organized terrorists that have a political group agenda, or organized goal. Their threat is minimal, yet maddening to the victims. Not the type of threat the articles suggests.

The article aggrandized these punks for political reasons. This crap journalism will be cited in some internet antitrolling bill/law that will be used to silence investigative journalists, or forums that openly discuss contraversial subjects.

Please consider this further, as this is written to frighten Facebook using mother's into irrational opinions.

[–]Mnemonic[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I'll regard it in the future.

I just don't read the article that way, again anti-trolling bills would be good IMHO (THOUGH! I have a hard time conceptualizing such bills in a good way and I see those bills being geared towards censorship)*.

I'm glad we agree on trolls and that we could have this exchange without trolling :)

[Yeah even that Saville pic wasn't 'real' trolling ;) and if it was, Bombadil is a bad troll, he's too bad ass to be one :p]

*EDIT: So I'm not for censorship, but in a conceptual view 'a bill to ban trolls' would be nice, I just have Very high doubts of the practical side of it as You.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Apophis Squad

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apep

Apep (also spelled Apepi or Aapep) or Apophis (Ancient Greek: Ἄποφις) was the ancient Egyptian deity who embodied chaos (ı͗zft in Egyptian) and was thus the opponent of light and Ma'at (order/truth). He appears in art as a giant serpent. His name is reconstructed by Egyptologists as *ʻAʼpāp(ī), and survived in later Coptic as Aphōph. Apep was first mentioned in the Eighth Dynasty, and he was honored in the names of the Fourteenth Dynasty king 'Apepi and of the Greater Hyksos king Apophis.