Trollfarm

Flood our enemies with noise and pictures of Smurfs.

A trollfarm is not a picturesque Norwegian paddock where free-range baby trolls roam and frolic. I wish it was. Trollfarms are keyboard armies of humans hunched over their laptops, interfering with the internet.

Internet trolls are people that post inflammatory, insincere or abusive messages in online newsgroups, forums, chat rooms or game spaces with the intent of provoking an emotional response. Facebook is full of them. Everything from snide sarcasm to cyber-bullying, disinformation and blatant hate speech. Men are more likely to perpetrate trolling behaviour whereas women are often the victims. The best way to deal with trolls is to ignore them and deprive them of the pleasure they get from provoking your reaction.

The 2016 US election was an example of how right-wing trollfarms saturated social media with lies, slander, disinformation and character assassination, particularly of Hillary Clinton. The Russians got involved when they realised how easily the American public could be influenced and misled by propaganda. Then we had covid which showed how disinformation can spread and infect just as quickly as the virus.

Inevitably, devious despots in business and governments recognised the potential power of individual online trolls and multiplied them. Weaponized them. Paid them to maintain millions of fake profiles to manipulate political opinions and influence decision-making. They are successful otherwise they wouldn’t be in operation. People seem to be influenced by the quantity not the quality of information. Attitudes shaped and formed by insidious influencers controlling armies of internet bots.

It can be hard to ignore a coordinated campaign of propaganda or disinformation where there are thousands if not millions of posts creating the illusion of a majority opinion. Trollfarms are not regulated, not illegal, not undercover. The only restrictions they face are from the platforms they use. And Xwitter, Facebook, Instagram don’t want to regulate. They want to provoke people into reacting because that is how they make their money collecting data.

There is a recent disturbing trend of trolls commandeering deceased social media profiles. There are tens of millions of dead people on Facebook and there will likely be hundreds of millions in the next few decades. A ready-made zombie cyber-army of unmaintained profiles with all of their friends, groups and histories waiting to be hacked and hijacked.

Imagine getting a DM from a deceased friend or relative trying to sell you Viagra or weight loss pills. Or supporting Trump from beyond the grave. Scammers are looking for any kind of reaction to exploit our weaknesses for their benefit. While Facebook could and should delete these accounts, they would wipe out valuable personal histories. Social media companies have an incentive to keep those profiles alive if they can in any way drive engagement and potential profit.

There are many examples of state-sponsored internet propaganda. The biggest trollfarms are openly run by the biggest governments.

• The Philippines is the hub of the global disinformation epidemic. Political campaigns in the Philippines and all over the world pay troll armies to post propaganda and attack critics using multiple fake social media accounts.

• The US government operates a trollfarm called Operation Earnest Voice. A propaganda and astroturfing program developed as a psychological weapon aimed at jihadists across the Middle East. USA also outsource their troll farms to the Philippines and places like the town of Veles, North Macedonia, where there are 140 political websites all curiously supporting Donald Trump.

• The Burmese military exploited existing ethnic tensions and the dominance of Facebook in Burma with racist disinformation in 2016. Facebook played a significant role in the genocide that killed an estimated 10 thousand Rohingya and caused over 700 thousand to flee to Bangladesh.

• The Chinese Communist Party operate trollfarms on platforms like Weibo flooding anyone perceived to be critical of the Chinese regime with hateful or demeaning comments. A 2016 Harvard study reported that Chinese trollfarms create over a million pro-government posts every day.

• The Saudi Twitter army tormented Jamal Khashoggi before the regime gruesomely murdered the journalist in 2018.

• The Russian Internet Research Agency became known for interference in the 2016 US election. Russian trolls pose as Americans and post inflammatory comments on emotive issues like gun control and immigration. In 2022, Russian troll farms flooded Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn with posts expressing support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine creating the false impression of public support for the Kremlin.

Britian, Israel, Brazil and many more nations from Albania to Vietnam operate trollfarms that use a variety of methods. Trolling has become a global industry of manufactured noise with its own form of internet subculture, rituals, rules and specialized language.

• Astroturfing - A fake front pretending to serve the public interest, while actually working on behalf of a corporate or political sponsor.

• Sockpuppets - A false online identity.

• Doxxing - Publicly providing personally identifiable information about an individual.

• Poe’s law - A law of internet culture exploited by those with genuine extremist views. When faced with criticism, they insist they were merely being satirical.

• Sealioning - Pursuing people with relentless questions and requests for evidence while maintaining a pretence of civility and sincerity and feigning ignorance of the subject.

Depending on how much time we spend online this can be quite overwhelming, a little bit depressing and may make you wonder if you can ever trust anything on the internet. The answer is – you can’t. But there are examples of good trolls having a positive impact. When fighting a war, communication systems are vital. If you can disrupt, manipulate or control your enemies’ communications, then half the battle is won. The easiest and cheapest way to disrupt channels of communication online is to flood them with noise.

They probably wouldn’t describe themselves as trolls, but thousands of Korean K-Pop fans logged on to the online battlespace in the USA following the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. They flooded right wing hashtags and internet spaces such as #whitelivesmatter and #MAGA with K-pop videos and pictures of Smurfs. K-pop fans also booked thousands of seats for Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa as a prank, resulting in a hugely underwhelming attendance.

A group of Philippina schoolgirls used the troll’s own methods when they came under attack for condemning former Philippine dictator and kleptocrat, Ferdinand Marcos. They created hundreds of fake Facebook accounts to counter the abuse from pro-government bullies and overwhelmed them with facts about Ferdinand’s corrupt regime.

I think there is potential for trollfarms to be used for good. The K-poppers have shown it can be done successfully. Imagine, relentless posting of actual facts about climate change and vaccinations instead of lies and disinformation. Bringing back the trust. Attack the hate groups with love. Flood our enemies with noise and pictures of Smurfs. The biggest fight will be against the autocratic governments, the polluters and the billionaires that own the platforms. Trollfarms have proven to be effective, and it would be so good to use one of the enemy’s weapons against them.

So, lets harness the power of trollfarms. All we need are thousands of tech-savvy twelve-year olds, lock them in giant underground basements. Armies of anaemic young men and women spilling donut crumbs on their keyboards. They could influence and educate the gullible public on climate change, war, poverty, racism, sexism and everything that is wrong with the world. We can pay them with big bottles of Coke and Fanta. They don’t need to go to school, everything they need to know is on the internet anyway and this work will be much more constructive than playing PlayStation. It will be fun and satisfying and there is no shortage of targets.

Keyboard warriors unite and fight the good fight!