How to Handle Trolls

Center for Countering Digital HateIt’s not that important to classify whether a given account is computer bot or human. Either way you want nothing to do with these accounts. Put simply, they are accounts you do not want following you. Bot accounts are all typified by having very little bio info, few followers, and very few tweets (actually more often retweets). Also if you observe the pattern of the retweets they are often inconsistent (the bot account just retweets a few tweets without knowing about the content, just to put something on the timeline, so the tweets may be on completely random topics or mutually contradictory e.g. Tweet one heavily pro some cause, Tweet 2 virulently anti-the same cause. Troll accounts tend to be similar but with more tweets, as the human responds, on trigger topics.

So, How to Tell Which Account is a Troll?

You can usually tell very quickly by the nature and tone of the tweets that this is an individual, you don’t want to be associated with. Block. Another risk in not blocking troll accounts is that they are also effective users of complaining and reporting procedures, run by Twitter. I have many friends who have received both temporary and extensive Twitter bans, because unnoticed troll follower accounts have reported them (as an aside, avoid swearing and particularly never using profanities, on Twitter, unless you are happy to be suspended/banned). Bots and trolls are poison, so learn early to spot them and block them quickly.

What to Do About Trolls That You Find?

So, what does one do, when one is being hassled, insulted, abused by a nasty account, which may not even be human? What if you notice bad behaciour towards others, who may be vulnerable. Do you tell the community, so they can avoid or report that troll or do you just report them to Twitter, if you think they may have broken the rules or do you simply block them yourself? Maybe, you don't mind, at all, so you take no action.

Don't Retweet Trolls' Tweets

Of course, whatever action you take is up to you, but it is not a good action to report them to the community, by retweeting their absusive tweet. It is recommended that people don't amplify the opposition by quote tweeting them or replying to them.

If you really wish to make a point that needs the original to be shown, then take a screen print,so that it is a dead link. Trim this, to get rid of things you don't want shown and include it by using the picture function when you send the tweet. This stops casual click through and stops someone, who said something outrageous, from getting click-through and credit for it.

It is best always to not comment, unless the thing in question is actually important.

Read the CCDH report (Center for Countering Digital Hate) - 

https://252f2edd-1c8b-49f5-9bb2-cb57bb47e4ba.filesusr.com/ugd/f4d9b9_ce178075e9654b719ec2b4815290f00f.pdf - (opens in new tab/window)