THE TROLL HUNT: PART I

What is an online Troll?

From the last SubStack series, The Art of the Shill you learned what shills are and how to counter them. This Series, The Troll Hunt, you will learn about online trolls, how they operate, and how they can manipulate to spread disinformation.

WHAT IS AN ONLINE INTERNET TROLL?

An online internet troll is basically an online bully, deliberately trying to offend, cause trouble, or directly attack people by posting derogatory comments, social media posts, blogs, forums, etc.

Online internet trolls commonly avoid using their real names and information online. Trolls will go by a common first name, which makes it hard to track. They will use strange or anonymous user names in order to keep you from recognizing who they are. Trolls love to use images found of real people as their profile pic to make their accounts look legitimate.

Online internet trolls love to get a rise out of you. If you read through their comments and posts, you ill see how they degrade and attack other people. They will use constant profanity, insults, insensitive words in their posts. Trolls get a thrill out of bullying other people. They will say harmful things to people often, which is really cyberbullying.

Online internet trolls are guaranteed to have new accounts. They will create new accounts often since their accounts usually get blocked or banned quickly from the platforms they engage.

Online internet trolls ill consistently argue over and over again the same subject. They will keep replying on a same thread or they will argue with many people over the same or similar topics. Once someone has replied to a troll, the troll will always respond in a negative manner. They will continue to argue, even though they have been given a clear, truthful answer and provided sources/links. Trolls love to troll to get people upset. They love to lure people into useless discussions to waste time.

Online internet trolls can be easy to spot. They will make posts with many basic errors. Trolls will misspell words, miss punctuation, uncapitalize words in the beginning of a sentence, write sentences in all CAPs, and/or do not us proper grammar.

Lastly, online internet trolls will never ever take a break from commenting on posts. Trolls will respond consistently through out the day. If you see posts spaced out by a few hours or a few days, its a good sign the account is a legitimate account.

TO BE CONTINUED…