An internet troll’s purpose is not to socialize, make friends or love connections. A basic discussion on any topic to them is an open invitation to cause a hate storm or the internet troll will create his/her own post to get other people into fighting with them and each other. They will completely go off topic and attack someone on just about anything they write. Your blog or forum could be about kittens and puppies, the troll will turn it to a hate fest. An internet troll will attack someone’s biological sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, race, ethnicity, religion, political views, appearance…their goal is to start augments and hate between other members on the social website. The purpose of the attack is to cause infighting and to target one member at a time, getting other members to attack the individual too. These attacks will happen on your posts and comments, other people’s posts and comments, and through your email (through the website’s email or even your own personal email, if they somehow get it). Internet trolls will support things like sexism, racism, homophobia , classism or even subjects like pedophilia, human trafficking…to get a major rise out of those that have basic human compassion and empathy for other human beings. Their goal is either to make it so unpleasant that an individual leaves or even deactivates their profile or they fight back against their horrid treatment and break a rule of the group or social website. All the while the troll is enjoying the drama that they have started, getting members to hate each other and the internet troll will keep saying things to fuel the flames of discord. In both ways the troll has won, the victim is gone and then they move on to their next victim. This is a sport to an internet troll.
Most of these internet trolls will have multiple profiles both having a picture profile and/or various faceless profiles on a social website that have little or no information about the member, this is a red flag. These internet trolls will disappear and reappear in another persona or various personas to wreak havoc again, over and over. These internet trolls will break various rules of the site and are banned only to come back as someone else. Most social website will try to control this extreme behavior by banning them from the social website but some social websites NEVER punish them for these violations because the moderators are NOT doing their jobs or the owners of these social websites believe the drama brings more members in, like an online parody of the Jerry Springer show, anything goes.
I have experience this behavior and seen others being attack also. Recently, I have been in Facebook groups and other social media sites that have NO control over the hundreds of internet trolls that have attached themselves to these groups and sites like life sucking barnacles. These trolling members attack daily on these groups and sites getting people kicked out for responding to their bad behavior because administrators will not stop the harassment and in fact some administrators are internet trolls themselves. The minute you become a member the trolling begins. It starts with inappropriate attacks about anything you say, your sex, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, political views…are also attack, and sometimes emails for sex or hate messages are sent, personally attacking you all over again. These internet trolls would attack me and get valid members also to attack me. This created an environment that I could not interact with anyone without the internet trolls attacking them or me on the posts and blogs. The moderators were not doing their job or enjoyed the drama, either way it ended on one singles website a few years back with a man writing a homophobic death threat blog against me and I was the one kicked off the social site for making him mad. Fun times indeed.
So since not all social website and groups have good moderators. And some owners of these websites enjoy the whole Jerry Springer online parody and the internet troll behavior. Members of social website need to be the vehicles of change for basic human decency on these social websites. And remember disagreeing on a subject should not be a reason to attack someone viciously about their biological sex, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, political views, appearance…this is an off topic internet troll attack. This is a disagreement not a war, always remind yourself of this, internet trolls want to be entertained.
Steps To Stop Internet Trolls:
Ignore an internet troll if possible. I know this is hard because you feel the need to defend yourself or another person. But this is what the internet troll feeds off of. DO NOT feed them. Let them go on their meaningless moronic rant and know that you are more mature than they are.
Block an internet troll whenever possible. Yes, the internet troll and their best friends will attack you like rabid psychopaths on their own and other people’s profiles and blogs but ignore them. On some websites like Facebook they cannot see you and you cannot see them, which can be a blessing or a curse because you do not know what they are writing about you (which could cause you more issues with other users). But blocking them is still the healthiest thing you could do for your own well-being and creating a safer space for your thoughts and opinions and also on most websites with a blocking feature it blocks them from sending you nasty little private messages. DO NOT feel bad about blocking an internet troll they DO NOT want to be your friend only your enemy and they ARE NOT looking for a love connection either. Make them move on. Remember a social or dating website or group is not a battlefield; people join to meet friends and maybe find a romantic connection and to have adult sharing of ideas, information, and non-hateful discussion. Concentrate on that, not them.
DO NOT allow internet trolls to attack someone on your own profile, group, blog, website… Just delete their comments and block or ban them if possible and tell people to ignore their comments if they appear while you are offline and to report it to either you (if you are running the main site) or the person running the main site. If the internet troll has no outlet for their hatred and controversy, they will leave the website. Because that is the only reason they became a member in the first place, to start trouble.
Report an internet troll. Most social websites have real rules that are enforced but there are some that do not. But always report. Yes, we know it probably will have little impact on these social websites that like Jerry Springer online parody behavior. But if enough people show they are tired and disgusted by this behavior it may be stopped. The fear of financial loss can make “the powers that be” make changes very quickly. Money talks make them listen.
If an internet troll threats you in any way, saying that they can harm you in the internet world or the real world. Report them and change all your passwords on emails, social sites, and other internet based outlets, including online banking. Some internet trolls are very technologically savvy and can hack into any account on the internet. If you find out someone has hacked into any of your accounts, report it to the authorities and give them the information of where you believe the hacker (A.K.A internet troll) found you. If you have trouble in the real world and feel you are being stalked physically, report it to your local authorities and give them the information of where you believe the stalker (A.K.A internet troll) found you. Social websites can be dangerous, especially ones that t have NO real safety measures. You must watch out for yourself, online harassment can go into the real world.
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