There are always so-called “trolls” on the Internet. You keep stumbling over this word. What are trolls and how can you recognize them?
Disinformation in times of Russia's attack on Ukraine! The conflict surrounding the southeastern regions of the defunct Soviet Union has been simmering for years. Even if the guns are speaking today and it is not foreseeable when the military conflict will end, this war by Russia, not only for Ukraine, but for its sphere of power and influence worldwide, is also taking place on a different level. The platform is the Internet, the weapon is fake news, the target is disinformation and propaganda. The keyword media war is on everyone's lips. Russia: Russian Troll Army
This media war is fueled by the activities of Russian troll accounts, also known as the troll army.
Wikipedia describes this phenomenon as follows: “Troll army or Putinbots are (along with troll factory and web brigades ; Russian кремлеботы Kremleboty “Kremlin bots”) the common names for a covert organization in Russia that manipulates the Internet on behalf of the state. With the help of sock puppets - fictitious identities - the public mood in online forums and the comment sections of news sites is influenced in the interests of the Russian government." ( HERE ).
Russia is putting a lot of effort into influencing public opinion in the interests of the Kremlin, i.e. Putin.
But what are trolls anyway?
Trolls – many people always think of “bad” profiles, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Trolling can be anonymous, constructive, or just fun and funny. But also annoying and aggressive.
In internet jargon, a troll is a person who continually and destructively hinders communication on the internet by writing posts that are limited to provoking other participants in the conversation and do not represent a factual and constructive contribution to the discussion . In related images, reference is often made to the troll known from mythology. An occasionally used synonym is Twit. The associated activity is called “trolling”.
How do you recognize a troll?
So-called troll posts are limited to communication on the Internet and can be found primarily in discussion forums and newsgroups, but also in wikis and chat rooms, on mailing lists and in blogs. A troll is someone who intentionally disrupts conversations within an online community. The provocations are usually subtle and without real insults. In this way, trolls avoid or delay their exclusion from administered forums. According to Judith Donath, for the author trolling is a game in which the only goal is to elicit the most angry and unobjective answers possible.
The 4 behavior patterns of trolls:
- Trolls act intentionally , repeatedly and harmfully .
- Trolls ignore and violate community principles.
- Trolls not only cause content damage , but also attempt to stir up conflict within the community.
- isolated within the community and try to hide their virtual identities, for example by using sock puppets.
The case analyzes revealed different motivations for the trolls:
- Boredom, attention seeking, revenge
- Fun and Entertainment
- Desire to cause as much damage to the community as possible.
A troll profile, whether in forums or social networks such as Facebook, is usually NOT the main profile of a user, but rather the user's secondary and anonymous mouthpiece.
Not only does a troll have to be destructive, but it can also simply reflect a user's suppressed opinion, which he/she cannot express on the main profile without causing harm to the community. An example would be expressing an unpopular but correct opinion in a community. The troll profile would have an eye-opening effect without wanting to harm the discussion.
What is the impact of troll posts?
destroying trust within a community . Another effect that occurs particularly in communities that are often disturbed by troll posts can be seen in dealing with newcomers: questions that are actually based naivety
What can you do about it?
One way admins can protect forums from such posts is to inform users about the phenomenon and the typical characteristics of troll posts. Especially in forums, a good forum admin can assign a troll to their main profile based on the users' IP addresses. At the same time, cookies placed can expose a troll (assuming it really is a secondary profile). In practice, comparing login times, IP addresses and surfing behavior has proven to be an effective tool.
What can users do?
The other participants in the discussion can counteract troll discussions by NOT responding to the troll's posts. In online culture, this is referred to with the phrase “Do Not Feed The Troll”, as the acronym DNFTT. This deprives the trolls of the attention they want to get. As a rule, the trolls then give up and move on. Occasionally they also use a sock puppet (another, separate fake account) to feed themselves. Therefore, additional, strict moderation is helpful to address the problem.
Trolling doesn't necessarily have to be negative, there is definitely creative trolling too.
The followers of this creative trolling definitely see their craft as an art form. One of the best-known creative trolls is the Australian author David Thorne, who gained notoriety with quite humorous email exchanges and doesn't shy away from trolling his own fans.
Troll trivia
One of the most well-known signs of troll culture is the so-called troll face:

The Trollface (also Coolface) is originally a so-called meme, which (like so many memes) first found fame on 4Chan and was created by the artist Whynne. Trollface is said to be modeled on Jim Carrey. If this face appears in the vicinity of an article or a page, it can be seen as an indication of a certain direction.
Next to the troll face: the (red ascii) herring
The herring was an early symbol used to mark troll posts from other users. This fish also stands for “do-not-feed-the-troll”. Why a fish? Well, that's because it's a food that can be represented by touch. Especially in the early days of feeds and forums on the Internet, it was not common practice to be able to incorporate graphics into text. Therefore the so-called ASCII style was used. And the herring served as a troll warning sign ><((((*>
The Trololo song
Nobody has to watch (listen to) it, but it is a self-characterizing element of troll culture.
Rickrolling
Rickrolling is a humorous variant of trolling: a user is referred to a link in a post or email that is heavily promoted by the creator and presented as interesting (example: winnings, nude photos, etc.). However, behind it is only the music video to “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley, with the nice hint that you’ve been rickrolled.
Unbelievable but true: There are smartphone-controlled vibrators. @TheHeinrichs introduces you to a really great model https://t.co/pyqgkwLMmz
— wochenwebschau (@wochenwebschau) November 27, 2015
Trolling in other areas of the internet – griefing
Gamers in particular will hate this type of trolling as it is a destructive way of playing online games.
A griefer uses various methods to annoy other players: he (virtually) kills his own team members, engages in spawn camping (i.e. prevents others from even entering the game), uses the team chat/radio for annoying spam or uses illegal cheats ( Immortality, walking through walls, etc.)
Here too, moderation or a good admin is extremely important.
In the end, however, we are left with the following conclusion:
DNFTT ><((((*>
Sources: Information about “Troll”
“Feed the trolls!”
Related to the topic: China's internet trolls attack the West
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