A different sort of post today. This Blog is about photography, but this post is about social media, where many of us get our photography out into the world. It is the result of some recent interactions on social media and how my curiosity opened a huge can of worms that I had heard of in passing, but never really bothered to find out more. This is all about modern devils
I post on three or four photo forums. The experience is variable. You mostly meet some good and interesting people, with your same interest in photography. But eventually you will run into some deeply disturbed individuals, maybe without ever realising it. We are talking about what is commonly called Trolling and Trolls.
On one forum where I post, there is a person who seems at first sight to just have a serious personality disorder. His posts are obsessive and repetitive, and he always must have the last word. It is annoying and I try my best to ignore anything he posts. Any interesting thread that he choses to engage with, soon becomes a shitshow, of bad humour. People complain but he has not broken any terms of service rules.
Using this site has become an unpleasant experience at times. On this particular forum there are people I wave exchanged views with in a friendly way for more than ten years. So the easy and logical option of just crossing the forum off the list is not the solution.
It is August here in Italy. At 40 degrees it is too hot to go out, and most of my clients are on holiday. Basically I have time to kill. So it was time for a little lesson. I suspected this sad individual was posting other peoples pictures (The second bee picture). Google Search on the second image I looked at took me to DPR another forum, in fact the larges and most well known forum to discuss photography, with thousands of active members.
Voila, under a very different name I found the same picture on another forum. The style of writing was very different, But I had just stumbled across something much more complex. Welcome to the world of Sock Puppets and puppet masters. Let's call our troll "Danno" (He claims to have an Italian parent and Danno means damage in Italian) using one of his online names. I asked Danno why he was posting other peoples pictures. A ton of goading via multiple call and answer, did not prove the picture was his, but he claimed "Lambertj" who posted the picture was him too DPR.
A bit of searching on DPR and messaging with sombody else, quickly threw up the fact he had a huge list of other accounts running at the same time. A DPR moderator posted a screen shot of his many accounts (Steve Z is him too!). There are others that are not on the list.
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| From DPR |
I assumed the purpose was to cheat in the phot competitions on the site. But I am told these sock puppets would often congregate on a thread to argue amongst themselves and cause mayhem. My God we are dealing with something more than a sad inadeguate with personality problems.
OK. I have told the story. I wanted to find out more about why sombody would want to behave like this. Obviously they have personality problems, mental heath issues too probably. Lots of studies have been carried out and mental heath professionals and phycologists are able to build a picture these strange creatures. It is a darker story than one would imagine.
One of "Dannos" sock puppets is pretty clear about his objective
As posted on DPR ( see the Mod link above):
Hi David !
Yeah , Admin can also confirm , that in the past few years you have created at least these 10 accounts : David1961, Danno B , Q-ball , rambet , damsal, Ingah , lambertj , manautoiso, pixelmaiker , Kaspah...
******* Update**********
On the forum, where I was having problems with a troll, I was careful not to name names. It is pretty obvious to users who that person is, but I wanted the troll to out himself, for several reasons. Not least of all I did not want problems with the site admin.
So what effect did my thread have on the troll. Let's for convenience call him Dan, but who knows what his real name is. I'm not going to refer to his user name on that forum.
Well when he first saw the thread (I have the stats, as I know he resides in Australia), he made a lot of brownnosing posts, being really civil for a change, especially to the administrators of the site. It was curious to follow. I must of fucked with his mind all day, and in the end he could not resist replying before bedtime. I got the trolls usual agressive disparaging style, when I read the reply to my post on the forum over a coffee. Weirdly he is obsessed with lies and lying in his replies. An honest mistake or a different opinion is always lie to Dan's warped mind. Remember we are dealing with highly disturbed individuals, and these individuals, should never be underestimated.
Using the advice below, I made one exhaustive reply, and will leave it at that. He can have the last word.
He has already replied three times to my reply. I guess he is trying to provoke in the the way the textbooks say these assoles do.
*****Update*******
Steve z another of Dan's sock puppet, got caught cheating in a photo comparison.
We are in the comedy zone here. The feeble attempt to alter the exif, probably means the shot was stolen from sombody else.
******Update******
I seem to be getting the rat cornered. Having got him to out himself. I could post a few screen shots, of his antics on the big photo forum. This got him really mad. In all his posts he lashes out incoherently and with the usual repetition. A bit of Gish Gallop and some Sealioning (see below). So finally he arrived at threats and menacing behaviour.
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| I guess he has been watching the Godfather |
Some earlier replies
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| Totally incoherent |
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| I have the web stats, I know where he is and he sure did visit several times |
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| The Relatives in Italy and I quess the Godfathers concrete boots |
I feel I have opened a can of worms, that even the scientific papers I read, cannot totally help me understand the contorted and totally insane world that lives inside this guys head. The internet is chock full of these people. If you post on a larger discussion space, you might be conversing with one of these individuals without realising it, as the internet is teeming with these sick individuals.
Below are some excepts from a number of texts about trolling
From Phycology Today
Individual factors that contribute to trolling:
Personality: There are many ways of understanding personality. In essence, personality traits are deeply ingrained patterns of thinking and behaving. One way to understand one particular aspect of personality is to focus on some of the darker sides of human nature, which researchers have called the dark tetrad: sadism, psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. The dark tetrad has been found to be associated with trolling. Within the dark tetrad, sadism has been found to be the strongest predictor of trolling, which describes the tendency to derive pleasure or enjoyment from being cruel or demeaning to others. It is important to recognize that sadism in this sense occurs on a spectrum—people can have more or less sadistic tendencies.
Conditioning: Not everyone finds demeaning people to be rewarding and reinforcing. But this is the experience of people with stronger sadistic tendencies. One framework to help understand trolling is what psychologists call operant and classical conditioning. Operant conditioning is the study of rewards and punishment to influence behavior. For some, this might dredge up images of rats or pigeons dancing for food pebbles. Basically, trolling behavior can feel rewarding in two ways: the pleasure experienced from getting a rise out of a target (positive reinforcement) and in some cases, the pleasure experienced by avoiding or distracting from aspects of life that are uncomfortable (negative reinforcement). Like a slot machine, randomly responding to trolling just strengthens the motivation for it to continue. Simultaneously, there are classical conditioning processes going on—reminiscent of a dog that salivates when you open the cupboard because they know they’re about to eat. A dog salivates because they’ve learned that the cupboard represents food. In the same way, people with sadistic tendencies that engage in trolling may salivate, so to speak, when they learn that their target represents the pleasure that they’ll experience when they troll.
From the Conversation
What does this mean?
These results have important implications for how we manage and respond to trolling.
First, based on the results of psychopathy and sadism, we understand the internet troll as someone who is callous, lacks a sense of personal responsibility and enjoys causing others harm.
The significance of psychopathy in the results also indicates trolls have an empathy deficit, particularly when it comes to their ability to experience and internalise other people’s emotions.
On top of this, the interaction between high sadism and high self-esteem suggests trolls are not trolling because they have low self-worth. In fact, this is quite the opposite. The more someone enjoys hurting others and the better they feel about themselves, the more likely they are to troll.
So, how can we use this information?
Unfortunately, the psychological profile of an internet troll means you will not get far appealing to their sense of humanity. And don’t just brush off the troll as someone who has low self-worth. Their character is far more complex, which makes managing the behaviour all the more challenging.
Translated from Thewise magazine
The types
The following is a list without any claim to exhaustiveness of the various types of trolls among the most widespread on social networks, the result of more than twenty years of experience in numerous online communities.
The Joker
He is the classic troll, present since the dawn of the internet. He is an agent of chaos who indiscriminately hits anyone who wants to bother at that moment. He takes pleasure in creating havoc and generating flames, without any personal gain other than the pleasure of seeing Rome burning.
The blaster
He is so used to clashing with other trolls that he often mistakes unwitting users for provocateurs. When he in turn reacts by trolling, he is aware of being unpleasant to his interlocutor, but since the victim is a member of a category he considers worthy of blame, he feels right (secularists vs bigots, science popularizers vs antivax). A skilled perculator and black belt in sarcasm, he fights his crusade alone, even if other users and followers often rush to support him.
The Spammer
It is a professional who almost always acts in a coordinated manner with other trolls, often with the use of fake profiles (sockpuppeting). Its purpose is to flood a certain space with propagandistic material/disinformation in order to influence public opinion in the direction desired by the patron of the troll. The cases of Russian interference before the Brexit referendum in 2014 and in support of Donald Trump's election campaign in 2016 are famous.
The Saboteur
It can be a professional troll or simply a supporter who "goes overboard" in supporting a cause they believe in. Its purpose is to enter a virtual community to unravel it from the inside, making it an unpleasant environment in order to alienate its participants. He often acts with multiple accounts and/or in a pack with other trolls, most of the time in a coordinated manner.
The Hound
It does not strike indiscriminately but chooses its victims one by one. He is extremely touchy, so it only takes the slightest rudeness to become a target. He will follow you obsessively on various groups and on various social platforms, he will not give up until he is tired to switch to someone else. He is morbid, bordering on stalking, but never crossing the red line. Of course, it tends to be a lone wolf.
The troll I encountered is clearly "The Saboteur".
Again from Thewise
The techniques of trolls in social networks
Let's now dissect some of the main manipulative techniques present in the arsenal of modern trolls. It is a compendium of psychology, rhetoric and devious subterfuges that constitute the dark side of social communication. They are flanked (and in some cases intersect) with the much better known and universal logical fallacies.
It should be noted that many of them can be implemented completely unconsciously and in good faith. They can be freely combined with each other.
At the end of each description there are tips on how to manage them.
Troll techniques
Sealioning
It is a very insidious trap. The troll assumes a falsely interested and very calm attitude, pretending to be a genuinely curious person when in truth his real purpose is to exasperate the victim with obsessive requests for explanations – often the same repeated over time – until he abandons the discussion. The first effect is precisely to erode the patience and determination of the rival with an argumentum ad infinitum, a fallacy well known since ancient times. The second effect is to make the target desist from expressing his opinion in the future, aware that it would mean an enormous expenditure of time and energy. Third effect, to ensure that from that moment on the victim acts in a biased manner towards any sincere request for information in good faith, for fear of getting involved again in a dead-end discussion.
Hi Danno
Possible countermeasures: once you have eaten the leaf, post an articulate and exhaustive link, then apply the silence treatment. Do not fall into temptation, ignore and move on, continue to argue exclusively with those who do not drain your energy and act as if the troll did not exist.
Typical phrases:
"Could you please post the sources of what you say?".
"I'm not convinced, is there any other research on the matter?"
Tone policing
It is one of the most popular techniques, especially in the most conservative circles. It consists of shifting the focus from the topic of discussion to the tone used, even without the tone having actually been raised or in reference to individual members of a category in order to generalize their behavior. Very effective as an expedient to reverse the course of a discussion that the troll is losing on an argumentative level. For example, it is a technique much appreciated by white supremacists against Black Lives Matter: criticizing the excessive vehemence of the protesters diverts attention from the causes that generated the protests to their consequences, thus assigning priority to the comfort zone of the oppressor over the legitimate claims of the oppressed.
Possible countermeasures: don't take the bait, woe betide you if you lose focus on the subject. Tone policing can be candidly debunked, after which the discussion must be brought back to the original tracks. Digs such as: "The tone is irrelevant: either you prove that you are right with the facts or, obviously, you are wrong".
Typical phrases:
"Tone down, calm down".
"Don't take it personally".
"With this tone you damage your cause."
Concern trolling
It consists of pretending to be allies of the victim and then making friendly fire. These can be both real individuals and fake accounts with homogeneous characteristics to the target, which the troll exploits to spread their thesis from a more advantageous position and in the form of legitimate concern. For example, the fake account of a trans/homo/bisexual who claims to be worried about the possible effects on freedom of thought caused by the Zan bill.
Possible countermeasures: there are two possibilities. The first is to ignore the troll, certainly the cheapest from the point of view of energy spent. The second is to reveal the troll's strategy, with answers such as: "Your concern trolling is not helpful to our cause at all." The goal is to compact the community and make it clear that the troll's position is a single and not shared. Or, if you want to be more pungent, a: "Thank you for worrying about it: there was absolutely no need" will do its dirty work.
Typical phrases:
"I'm not racist/male chauvinist/fascist/homophobic, but...".
Troll techniques
Gaslighting
It is perhaps the most devious (and refined) tool that an experienced troll can use. The purpose is to instill doubt about the correct perception of reality by the target through deception. It takes its name from the 1944 film Gaslight, in which the protagonist's husband almost drives her out of her mind with small expedients, such as denying that she hears footsteps in the attic, or that a painting has been moved, or even that the lights in the house have dimmed, leading her to doubt herself to make her declare herself incapable of understanding and wanting.
A classic wake-up call is when you feel the need to screenshot what a particular person writes.
Possible countermeasures: trust your instincts, screenshot everything. As soon as you catch the troll in the chestnut, expose the evidence to the public and block it. Then forget about its existence.
Typical phrases:
"You imagined it".
"Don't put words in my mouth that I have never said."
Astroturfing
It is a marketing technique that dates back to the eighties. Nowadays it consists of the mobilization of sympathizers (grassroots) and the use of fake profiles (sockpuppeting) to spread a false positive perception towards the astroturfer client. Fake five-star reviews, fake political endorsements, fake appreciation in general, everything is broth.
Possible countermeasures: if you have the impression that a community dear to you is a hunting ground for an astroturfer, the only ones who can really do something are the administrators. Identifying a mediocre astroturfer is not particularly complex: it is monothematic and creates a lot of new content, but without wasting time in long discussions that few read, so much so that it is usually perceived as biased directly by users. In these cases, it is useful to help administrators by reporting the matter to them. It is a different matter if astroturfing is done by experts, in which case it becomes practically impossible to counter it at the level of a simple user.
Dogpiling
A technique that we could define as "virtual squadism". It is a coordinated action between several trolls or by a troll who uses multiple fake profiles (sockpuppeting) which consists of flooding with a barrage of negative comments any post that contains ideas that the troll wants to censor. The action, usually carried out within a few minutes of the publication of the victim's post, has a speed and quantity of comments such as to inhibit the author from replying, and acts as a deterrent to anyone who wants to intervene, before they do so.
Possible countermeasures: given that don't feed the troll always remains the best option, if you think it's worth fighting it is enough to post new topics, but without responding to comments. If it is absolutely necessary, reply by opening a new post. The reason is simple: the rest of the users will see your post in their feed, but only a few will open the comments. Be careful, however, it may be that the troll is you: sometimes it happens that you find yourself doing unconscious astroturfing in a very homogeneous community that simply thinks differently from you.
Gish gallop
A technique typical of anti-scientific circles. It is named after the creationist Duane Gish. It is based on the observation that bringing a false argument is much faster and less expensive than proving its untruthfulness. The troll then proceeds to flood the victim with falsehoods, invented evidence, puppet arguments, half-truths, extrapolations of data resulting from cherry picking and/or deliberately misrepresented, in such quantities as to make it impossible to dismantle them all at the same pace with which the Gish rooster rattles them off.
The result is that the public has the – wrong – impression of a poor argumentative ability of those who are attacked, as they seem unable to stand up to the opponent who instead appears confident and "well" documented.
It works very well in face-to-face debates and is still very effective even in social media, as both forms of free discussion. It is less effective in debates that have precise rules and times, even more so if you know in advance that the answers will be fact-checked and if there is an impartial moderator, such as in electoral face-to-face on television.
Possible countermeasures: knowing that your opponent is a user of this technique, it is useful to prepare the countermoves in advance to the arguments he usually uses, to rattle them off before his Gish gallop begins and thus catch him off-guard, taking care to keep some tricks up your sleeve for the coup de grace. In the impossibility of doing so, one must not fall into the trap of answering point by point but it is necessary to focus on the lies that are easiest to unmask and then show them to the public as proof of his bad faith, instilling the doubt that having lied about one thing he probably did it about the rest as well. It also helps to use humor and sarcasm to belittle the supposed "scientific" nature of the Gish galloper, while being careful not to be unpleasant.
So there we are. I now know a lot more about Danno and his ilk
These deeply disturbed individuals are just not stupid idiots or assholes having fun. They are somthing much darker and dangerous.
So what to do. (From the Conversation)
It appears the popular refrain is correct: don’t feed the trolls and give them the hurt or angry response they are looking for.
This does not mean we should just ignore this behaviour. People who commit this type of cyber abuse should still be held accountable for their actions.I propose we change the narrative. Trolls are not to be feared — their power lies in the reactions they cause.
One way we can start is to become active bystanders. Bystanders are those who witness the trolling. Active bystanders intervene and say “this is not okay”.
Don’t fight fire with fire. Respond with outward indifference and strict no tolerance. Let’s work together to dismantle the power of the troll and take back the internet from their influence.
It is not only up to the person experiencing the trolling to respond and manage the behaviour. We all need to take responsibility for our online environment.
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After writing this Blog post, I feel better armed against this sick and vile filth, that pollutes our online enjoyment.
