To catch a Troll

A troll was a mythical Scandinavian creature - it's also an Internet "wind up" merchant.Trolls are being referred to in the mass media as “cyberbullies”, but more accurately a troll is just a “wind up” designed to inflame a viewpoint, upset a bunch of people or (better still, from the troller’s point of view) draw its intended victim into engaging in a hopelessly unwinnable and futile argument. The point is that a troll is not always a cyberbully, but a cyberbully can be a troll.

A troll gets his kicks when a victim responds, and the more stressed or upset they become in the process, the better the troll feels about it. For example, a troll might post into a vegetarian forum about how they enjoy eating beefburgers, or describe in a cat-lover’s forum how they ran over somebody’s cat the other day. A troll is intended to upset, enrage or provoke its intended target.

Trolling is a sub-set of Internet abuse that probably dates back to the early days of the ‘net before the web, when Usenet forums (newsgroups) were the main way of engaging with other users having similar interests. Newsgroups were static forums governed by a self-policing “charter” to keep them mutually respectful, focussed and prevent abuse.  The bulk of Usenet was swallowed up into Google Groups.

Although newsgroups and chat rooms were ripe for trolling at large, the advent of Twitter and Facebook allowed abuse to be directed towards individuals and their followers instead. Posting a troll, e.g. a message hoping that an actress has a serious accident, is designed to upset her fans more than anything but if the actress herself got upset by this mindless troll, then so much the better.

Not everyone can shrug off this form of abuse in a fast-evolving and anarchic medium like the web. The Internet makes it easy to post a troll from halfway round the world, but recently Facebook in Britain was hit by a court order forcing them to reveal the “identity” (IP address, anyway) of a troller who posted malicious abuse about a woman.

The victim reportedly hopes to use the IP addresses of the trollers to prosecute them. Pinpointing an individual is difficult when an IP address relates to several users sharing a home network, or maybe a wi-fi setup has been hacked into (unlikely). Computers may have to be forensically checked and ISP’s logs handed over, which needs a court order and in my limited experience the Police won’t always act if the cost of gathering evidence is deemed too high.

It’s clear how trolling is becoming a malicious mental weapon in the cyber-bully’s armoury. Without resorting to the law, trolls can best be dealt with by starving them of the attention that they desperately crave. You can forward details to the host (eg Facebook) claiming a breach of their Acceptable Use Policy. If you know an email address, you can also report it to the sender's ISP (e.g. TalkTalk or BT Internet).

In distressing cases though, a troll may become a Police matter. In 2011 it was reported that a British man was jailed for 18 weeks for trolling in a forum dedicated to remembering youngsters who had died. (Details here.) This was a classic form of troll, and the application of English law in this case (sending a communication of an indecent or offensive nature) is interesting.

My best advice is to rise above trolls, because they’ll get bored and go away and pick on someone else.