From asking innocent questions before mounting an attack to inciting online abuse by others, trolling is entering a new, subtler era. Here’s how to deal with it

The internet, almost everyone agrees, is a terrible place. You can’t move for trolls – malicious actors out to ruin your day with an argumentative tweet or Facebook post. Four in 10 Americans have experienced online harassment, according to the Pew Research Center.

The simple answer is to keep shtum. “Don’t feed the trolls” is a maxim many live by online. “There’s no benefit to it. You’re not going to be able to change anybody’s mind,” says Dr John Synnott, senior lecturer in investigative and forensic psychology at the University of Huddersfield. “There is no talking back to someone when they have made their decision.” But as Sarah Jeong, a tech journalist who will join the New York Times in September recently discovered, saying you’ll take a vow of silence is easier than actually keeping it. Her decision to fight fire with ironic fire backfired as trolls piled in, taking her joking responses to insults out of context in an attempt to get her into trouble with her new employers. She’s not unique.

“Online context lends itself to being ruthlessly decontextualised so that all we get is a single incriminating picture, tweet or post and everyone judges an entire person’s worth and character on that one snapshot,” says Dr Claire Hardaker, a senior lecturer in linguistics at Lancaster University, who has researched trolls.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sarah Jeong: fighting fire with fire. Photograph: YouTube

The New York Times and the Verge, Jeong’s previous employers, both stood by her. Jeong was and is “a subject of frequent online harassment”, the New York Times said in a statement. “For a period of time she responded to that harassment by imitating the rhetoric of her harassers.” But was Jeong right to tackle the trolls head on? According to her new employer: “She sees now that this approach only served to feed the vitriol that we too often see on social media.”

“If by trolling we mean abusive online behaviour, then in my view, trolling is never the answer,” says Hardaker. “It’s difficult to meaningfully enforce a moral boundary by crossing it, after all.” But satirical, non-harmful pranks and counter-discourse, of the type that Jeong engaged in in response to racially charged hatred, “can, and indeed does, absolutely have its place”.

Astroturfing

Trolling is no longer limited to bored individuals deciding to ruin someone’s day: misstep and you can come under fire from the combined forces of an entire country. Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, faced the ire of an online mob earlier this month for telling the Observer that, unless tackled, Labour’s issues with antisemitism could become a source of “eternal shame”. Many were British-based Corbynites angry at Watson, but Russia’s troll army piled in, too, according to Russian bot watchers.

Davide Sands (@DavideSands) Interesting that the Russian bots are really gunning for @tom_watson today... https://t.co/weQ1qR8Ai3 pic.twitter.com/0julI8T0wU

Easily identifiable by their English-sounding names, odd posting times that coincide with the working hours of Muscovites and slightly broken English, these “astroturfers” (or state-sponsored trolls) aren’t just a Russian invention: China has its “50-cent army” of commenters ready to leap to the defence of the motherland.

Instead of taking offence, take heart: you’re poking at something someone really doesn’t want you to. Better yet, an increased awareness of state-sponsored trolls means users feel more confident calling out purported connections to troll factories publicly.

What to say: “Zdrávstvuj, comrade! Thanks for the comment but I’d rather get on with my day. Do svidaniya!”

Sea lioning

Sea lioning is the process of killing with dogged kindness and manufactured ignorance by asking questions, then turning on the victim in an instant. “In this, the perpetrator endlessly nitpicks and relentlessly pursues the topic, but oh so very politely and, when the target finally gets annoyed and retaliates, the sea lion takes on the wronged victim of abuse role,” says Hardaker.

The solution is a simple one: just don’t engage with the troll in the first place. However, this can be difficult to do – a suspected sea lion may in fact just be a genuinely curious individual looking to learn more. So rather than ignoring them outright or devoting precious time to discussing the individual merits and drawbacks of a point with them, courteously directing them to a third-party resource – a couple of links to news stories about the matter at hand – can help nullify their attempts to derail your day.

What to say: “Here’s a peer-reviewed, academically rigorous link explaining all the information you need. Have a great day!” *Block*

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Thanks for your concern… veiled criticism and tone policing are weapons in the new troll armoury. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Concern trolling

Whether deliberately or not, a number of trolls decide to couch their criticism in what they pretend are genuine concerns. It could be suggesting that an overweight person go on a diet because of the health benefits – when in fact they just want to call them fat – or saying that they dislike the tactics of feminists because they’re too militant. If only they’d be more polite, the concern troll argues, they’d get further with their goals, when in reality, the likelihood is the troll holds a totally opposing viewpoint. Such an approach, called tone policing, is one part of the concern troll’s toolkit.

They’re a classic wolf in sheep’s clothing, pretending to be an ally when actually they’re often the most virulent enemy. The best way to deal with them is the classic method of handling any troll: ignore them. If you must respond, cut them off at the knees.

What to say: “Thanks for your concern but I’m actually OK.”

Counter-trolling

In her statement issued in response to the furore the “alt-right” attempted to whip up following her hiring by the New York Times, Jeong put a name to the practice many have used as an attempt to nullify the impact of the worst trolling. She called her outlandish responses to outrage about discrimination against white people – actions that mimicked the very reactions she sought to puncture – “counter-trolling”. “But it can be taken out of context,” warns Synnott. “People can quote any aspect of any conversation.”

The technique, using the sharp pinprick of sarcasm to deflate equally over-the-top arguments, is a method as old as time: using humour to pop the pomposity of a manufactured argument or to counteract malicious actors has been going on since the Greek comedies.

What to say: “Feel free to take my tweets out of context #Canceltrolls”

Visit r/stormfront, the subreddit once inhabited by white supremacists, and you’ll find pictures of severe weather

Incitement trolling

Also called trolling by proxy, this method of trolling encourages a dogpile on the victim. Whether it’s high-profile Twitter users quoting the messages of people with whom they disagree, with the unwritten implication that they’re trying to encourage their fanbase to attack the victim, or sharing a picture on Facebook and cajoling people to “share widely”, it stokes up a mob mentality that can prove ruinous to those caught in the crosshairs.

Letting loose the mob on a victim can result in their social media feeds being rendered unusable as they are swamped by notifications or, worse, with their address being posted online and them getting threatening phone calls. “In plenty of cases, the person in the picture has been the victim of a deliberate campaign of harassment orchestrated by a savvy individual who doesn’t want to be responsible for attacking them directly,” says Hardaker. There’s little you can do if you’re singled out for incitement trolling other than ride out the storm.

What to say: Nothing. “The average troll seems to find silence absolutely infuriating,” says Hardaker. It may seem like losing but actually, by saying nothing, you’re winning.

Trolljacking

Not all trolling is malicious. Just as Jeong tried to use her tormentors’ own techniques against them, a number of users on Twitter and Reddit are turning trolling on its head, puncturing the hate with humour. Visit r/stormfront, the subreddit that was inhabited by white supremacists – until Reddit kicked them from their turf – and you’ll find pictures of severe weather rather than racist bile.

The same thing has happened with r/whites, which discusses the merits of the various whiter shades of pale possible, and r/faggots, which is now a semi-dormant home for pictures of piles of sticks and food. It’s a simliar story on Twitter. The most high-profile campaign of trolljacking came in 2016 when hundreds of thousands of Twitter users wrapped their name in three brackets – muting the method that the far right had previously used to single out Jewish users for online bullying.

What to say: “Of course whites must be separated from colours – otherwise your white shirt will turn grey. Duh!”