How to spot a troll on and off social media and what to do if one harasses you

@ElentirENG ES 8·24·2024 · 18:33 0

In these 20 years that I have been publishing a blog and in 16 years on social media, there are some particularly hateful people who deserve a mention.

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These people are what is known on the Internet as trolls, a name that comes from an evil character in Scandinavian mythology and that the Royal Spanish Academy also defines as follows in the field of new technologies: "In Internet forums and social networks, a user who publishes provocative, offensive or out of place messages in order to annoy, attract attention or boycott the conversation."

Many good people suffer from trolls without realizing that they are trolls and this prevents them from realizing the kind of trap they are falling into when trying to reason with them, because trolls do not seek a serious or sincere dialogue, they only try to get attention at any cost, using means such as insults, defamation, harassment, slander and even threats. Unfortunately, this kind of people have made the leap outside the network, even into politics, so now we have to put up with them in public debate as well. It should be noted that both on the network and off it, trolls act in the same way.

A characteristic of trolls, in both areas, is that they try to get the attention of influential people, both users with many followers and famous people, trying to get them to take their chances in order to gain notoriety at their expense. The damage that such people can do should not be underestimated: some social media users have ended up closing their accounts because they cannot stand these unscrupulous people, who tend to make their victims angry, lose their temper and respond in a way they would not normally do.

To achieve this goal, they resort to underhanded methods such as those I have mentioned and they do so systematically. It must be taken into account that a troll is an unscrupulous person, so that his reputation matters little to him (especially when he uses anonymity on social networks to attack his victims). What a troll seeks is to damage the reputation of his victims so that they respond to him.

Many good people have a hard time understanding, in their good faith, something that is very basic: answering a troll is the best favor you can do for them. For a troll, getting a response from their victim is a victory. On the other hand, having their victim ignore them is something that frustrates their plans, especially if their victim takes certain measures to stop the harassment.

How to deal with a troll? The most basic thing is not to answer them. If you have any doubts about whether a person is a troll, check their social media profile or look for information before answering them. In any case, if someone starts a conversation with you with insults, defamation, slander or threats, you should cut off that conversation immediately. Someone who starts a conversation like this is not looking to engage in dialogue: they are only looking to humiliate you. On social media, you can do this by blocking the person who is harassing you. In the most serious cases (and this applies to both social media and off it), you can resort to the courts to stop the harasser.

One of the biggest mistakes with trolls is to believe that you can appease them, that you can reach some kind of consensus or agreement with them. There are people who, driven by good faith, try this route. It is almost always doomed to failure, because a troll is not looking for any kind of dialogue: what he seeks is to do harm by harassing other people.

Otherwise, a common problem with trolls is that even if you have blocked one, that person may continue to harass your followers or those who interact with you in an attempt to reach you and get you to take the bait. The best thing you can do in these cases is to explain what is happening, through a private messaging system, to the people around you who are being harassed by that troll, so that they can help you isolate him. Again, I repeat: in the most serious cases, the appropriate course of action is to resort to justice or file a complaint with the Polic, and I am referring to cases in which he commits a crime.

We must bear in mind that the measures we take to stop a troll not only benefit us, but also others, because they contribute to preventing other people from suffering the actions of these unscrupulous people. The more people decide to stop trolls, the safer and healthier the network and society will be. Each person who decides to listen to them and take them up on their issues is contributing to the continued existence of this problem.

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Image: frame from the film "The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001).