We have all heard of the “trolls” (fake accounts) of the internet. Some of us may, from time to time, have encountered/spotted “troll” accounts on social media. I hope none of you have been a victim of bullying. But what are “trolls” of the internet and why can a “troll” become very dangerous for our online life?
The dark side of the internet, and more specifically the “trolls” that live and reign on it, was recently highlighted by the SKAI television channel through a special report on “News at 8.” The purpose of the broadcast was to reveal how a “troll” can serve a political party.
But let's start from the beginning, what is a "troll"?
In Internet parlance, the word “troll” describes an Internet user with maliciously provocative, intentionally silly, or deliberately off-topic posts and opinions in an online open community, such as a discussion forum, public discussions on social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook , etc.), mailing list, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent to provoke and irritate other users or in any way disrupt an online discussion on any topic.
In fact, as Mr. Konstantinos Vavousis, an expert in Information Systems Security, explains in the SKAI report, creating a fake account and "fooling" the platform is quite easy and not at all time-consuming.
Now that we have clarified what the purpose of a troll on the internet is, let's take the matter one step further, i.e., when the troll operates in the interest of a political party or a company, etc.
As a matter of fact, one such “troll” who wrote in favor of SYRIZA from 2011 to 2015 recently spoke on Inside Story.
“We had a coordinator, who we knew was based in Koumoundourou. He was a member of the party and we knew his name. In the mornings he would send an e-mail to the common list of all the “trolls”, about a hundred people, which I was also on. There he would promote the non-papers, where he would tell us which topics we should “play” on Twitter and with which hashtags”, says Kostas, a former SYRIZA “troll”.
How did they cash in on their actions? They either later became transfer employees or received a sum of money of 200 to 500 euros per month.
It is estimated that in the summer of 2015, in view of the referendum, online “trolls” took over the internet, either in favor of “Yes” or in favor of “No”. After SYRIZA’s monumental turn, a scandalous trend prevailed that called for negative and aggressive comments to be written against its opponents. Of course, at this point we should note that “troll” accounts are used by, if not all, then most opposition political parties for the same purpose.
According to Mr. Christos Xenakis, Associate Professor of Digital Systems at the University of Piraeus, “trolls” are considered obsolete as the scepters have now been replaced by one fake account BOTS, special software that automatically manages hundreds of “trolls”. “This is even more complex and more difficult as you cannot control the machines”, stressed Mr. Xenakis.
How can we deal with a “troll”?
- If you ignore a “troll”, they will usually start producing increasingly annoying and offensive messages with the sole aim of provoking a reaction. If that doesn’t come, then the “troll” will usually give up.
- Participating in or responding to a discussion involving a "troll" is satirically described as "feeding", hence "Don't feed the trolls" so as not to provoke reactions that will satisfy them.
- There are useful technical means to combat a troll user, such as immediately removing their messages , usingappropriate protection filters, or blocking them.
In chat rooms the administrators (“operators” or “moderators”) have the ability to remove the “troll” from the discussion (kick) or even forbid its re‑entry (ban). A more aggressive method is the one where the “troll” is immediately placed outside chat room (akick). Finally, if the case of the “troll” is very «heavy», it is not even allowed to connect to the server (K-lined).
You can watch the report of SKAI at the link below, at the time 18:43.
