Troll Language, or How to Recognize and Fight Online Violence

If you've ever seen a notification on Instagram or Facebook and felt an unpleasant feeling in your stomach, you've probably experienced online violence.

If a person – an acquaintance or a stranger – sends you offensive messages or comments (a few examples from the book Don't be offended, but : "You've got an ugly face", "You're smart, but what are those tits for", "Just skin and bones"), then you know that something is happening, specifically – violence is happening.

If someone shares photos of their genitals or other pornographic content with you without your consent , or peppers your posts with comments about your body or orientation – this is sexual violence.

If someone is harassing you, bombarding you with messages, and you feel like they are watching your every online move – that's stalking.

Although anyone can become a victim of cyberbullying, according to a 2017 report by the Helsinki Human Rights Organization, women are most often the targets of such attacks – from unpleasant comments and undermining one’s competence through explicit proposals to threats and harassment. According to data presented by one of the UN agencies, 85% of adult women in the world have experienced or witnessed online violence against another woman .

What women or LGBTQ+ people experience online is not specific to this channel of communication. It is one of the symptoms of rape culture – a culture in which sexual violence and violence against non-men and non-heterosexual people is normalized, trivialized, and becomes an integral, universally accepted part of life – online and offline. We wrote about this in the article about catcalling.

A Short Glossary of Online Violence

There are a disturbing number of ways to harm someone online, from spreading false information to blocking accounts to stealing data or making criminal threats. Below, I explain the most popular terms you may encounter in this context.

Trolling

Trolling is (in short) behavior intended to ridicule or intimidate a person, group of people, or institution whose point of view does not coincide with the troll's worldview. It can take many forms: from memes and hashtags to harassment, death threats, blackmail, stalking, or behaviors such as doxxing (see below) or sexual violence. One of the most famous trolls in the world is Donald Trump , who in his statements (whether on social media, in interviews, or at rallies) does not shy away from racist or sexist texts thrown out just to cause a stir among commentators.

Doxxing

Doxxing is the disclosure of private information about a person online in order to intimidate, harass, or blackmail them. For example, doxxing was the disclosure of the home address of a politician responsible for the anti-abortion bill (whose name I won't mention here because it makes my blood pressure rise) by representatives of the Women's Strike. It can also be, among other things, the public disclosure of a transgender person's deadname (the name given to the person at birth, which is currently not used by that person in a given environment).

Identity theft

Identity theft is the act of impersonating someone without their knowledge, such as using their credit card or providing personal information, often with the purpose of committing further fraud (for example, taking out a loan in the victim's name).

To obtain private information, thieves can use a method called phishing – it involves obtaining data, for example, by means of fake websites (resembling, for example, the website of a bank or a courier company) and e-mails encouraging the disclosure of personal data.

Sexual violence related to photos and videos

Revenge porn is the distribution of private materials depicting sexual acts or nudity without the consent of the person appearing in them, in order to exact revenge for some action. This type of violence is most often associated with revenge from an ex, but it can also apply to sex workers, among others. It then involves the distribution of photos or videos recorded with the consent of the person being recorded, as well as those taken covertly, or even without the participation of the person visible in the recording (deepfake).

Deepfake is an incredibly realistic recording or photo prepared using artificial intelligence algorithms, which can also become a weapon of revenge porn persecutors.

Sexting, where the person receiving the messages has not consented, is also sexual violence. Yes – before sending someone a photo of your genitals, you should ask if the recipient wants it, because it won’t be a great surprise for everyone. Fortunately, more and more apps, including the dating app Bumble, detect such images and display a warning about their content.

DoA (denial of access)

The power of a denial of access attack is a massive attack – it involves using the functions of a given app or platform, for example sending emails or reporting abuse, but not once, twice or ten times, but hundreds, thousands of times by different users or bots, which leads to a complete loss of access to the service by the attacked person. Imagine receiving dozens of emails per minute – using your mailbox becomes virtually impossible.

What to do when we encounter violence?

Just as we react to name-calling or the crossing of boundaries offline, for example when someone harasses us on public transport or makes inappropriate comments towards us , we can react to violence online.

Seyi Akiwowo , an anti-bullying activist and founder of the Glitch Foundation , lists three key steps:

1. Take care of your security : just as you lock your bike to a rack or lock the door when you leave your apartment, secure your online accounts: set a strong password, add two-step verification and make sure that the content you want to share only with selected people remains private.
2. Document incidents of violence : make a table in which you will include screenshots, dates and links, and describe the feelings accompanying a given event - if you ever decide to report it to the police , this information will definitely be useful.
3. Put digital self-care into practice : set boundaries for your social media presence in accordance with your beliefs and feelings and, above all, talk to someone you trust. If you are a minor, tell an adult what is happening to you. And block, report, and block again.

What to do to reduce violence?

We don't have to wait until violence strikes us to act. We should take care of the hygiene of our data and our heads every day, not just when we feel threatened.

So always put your safety and boundaries first. Also:

1. Don't be afraid of rules : if you run an online space where information is exchanged between users (for example, a forum or a Facebook group), make sure to create rules and moderate them.
2. React : If you are a witness to harassment, do not pass by indifferently. You have a whole range of actions at your disposal: from contacting the person being harassed and offering them help or a sympathetic ear, through reporting the harasser to the moderators of the platform or to the police, to confronting the harasser (if you feel up to it and know how to take care of your safety).
3. Don’t minimize the problem : Just because something happens online doesn’t mean it’s not “real.” The effects of online violence are just as real as offline violence.

P.S. Fake news

Initially, I didn’t think of fake news, or false information that goes viral on social media, in the context of online violence. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like a form of violence. However, if it’s intended to harm someone or provoke people to take action to harm someone else (and it usually is), how exactly is it different from trolling?

Stories about children crying because of the teachers' strike; the lament of cousins ​​who were told by their friend's husband that hospitals are now only accepting Ukrainians, and that there is no point in going to hospitals at all, because medicine is a reptilian invention; conspiracy theories concerning even the best proven and documented scientific theories (the flat-earther movement) - repeating such stories can be disastrous. At best, it leads to confusion and the relegation of important (and true) information into oblivion, and at worst - to racist, xenophobic and homophobic violence.

Today, after two years of the pandemic around which a lot of conspiracy theories have grown, and in the face of the war in Ukraine, the country of our neighbors and friends, I dare say that the fight against fake news is the duty of every Internet user.

What to do to counteract false information? First of all, do not pass it on, because this is how its message is reinforced. You may ask: how to recognize fake news and look for real, reliable information? I recommend listening to the episode of "Foreign Department": 4 tips on how to defend yourself against Russian disinformation - its creator, journalist Maciej Okraszewski, explains how to consciously navigate the world of media.

I will add a piece of advice of my own: if we are not 100% sure that the information is true, it is better to simply not pass it on – nothing will happen, and we may help to stop the snowball that aims to wipe someone off the board.

Yes, all women

With all the dangers that come with being online, it's easy to feel like spending time on social media (let alone expressing your opinion on them) is so dangerous that you might want to give it up altogether.

Let us remember, however, that while networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have become a safe haven for all sorts of misogynists and trolls, they have also enabled persecuted people – both offline and online – to create support groups and carry out activism on a global scale.

The 2014 mass shooting in Isla Vista, USA, by a 22-year-old man who blamed women for his sexual failures, set off a wave of posts using the hashtag #yesallwomen. Women broke their silence by talking about their experiences of violence and fear. As Rebecca Solnit writes about this period in her essay collectionThe Mother of All Questions :

The public discourse on violence against women has changed; suddenly the whole world is talking about how common it is and how it is being justified, calling on men not to make excuses but to stand up to it […] Listening to women’s voices on social media and elsewhere, men have often realized for the first time what women have had to endure for so long.

The fourth wave of feminism is deeply connected to online channels and hashtag activism. Although I know that a hashtag won’t overthrow patriarchy (although it can bring us closer!), I watched with pride and admiration the confessions of people close and far away as part of the #metoo movement. Women around me began sharing stories of gender-based violence they had experienced—from catcalling to sexual harassment at work. I felt the power of sisterhood, anger, and mutual support very strongly.

One of the participants of the HFPC study on cyberviolence against women said, describing the specificity of online relationships: "[...] the Internet does something to people that makes them think that the more they do, the more they can do." And although she had in mind abusers who find it easier to write an offensive anonymous message than to say something to someone's face, I think about all those people who finally felt that they were "allowed" to share their pain and hold the perpetrators accountable.

I simply want to say: let's not be afraid to speak up in public (if we need to), let's support each other and not give a forum to people who have bad intentions. In this way, each of us can do our little bit to combat online violence.

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