WEEK 10: TROLL, TROLLING AND GENDER-TROLLING
Recently, in Vietnam, we have witnessed the rise of the trend "Trôn Trôn VN" translated to be "troll troll VN" as a meme and copied from the foreign countries.
As a kind of online harassment, trolling usually entails making offensive comments on blogs and websites in an attempt to target unsuspecting and vulnerable audiences. The abusers will be happy to be unknown and will take pleasure in four things: being aggressive, interfering, lying, and succeeding.
Threats of rape, threatening messages, or just provocative remarks meant to get the reader to react are common examples of trolling techniques.
This conduct is associated with "silencing strategies," which aim to keep users out of online forums or deter them from participating in public discourse in the future by tricking them into thinking that they are just supposed to "stay silent" and not provoke trolls any longer. This strategy makes the internet a less democratic place for everyone because fewer users are willing to speak up.
Gendered trolling is affiliated with the culture of rape when it normalizes victim-blaming or masculine dominance and heteronormative.
In aspects of a wide range of harm caused by aggressive acts undertaken against victims utilizing virtual space, focusing specifically on their gender, cyberstalking, virtual rape, and digital sexual assault.
When someone is the target of trolling, they may suffer from serious psychological disorders or subclinical illnesses, as well as sentimental humiliation if they have experienced great stress, anxiety, or discomfort.
Even people who are not easily intimidated will change their online behaviour by interacting less or becoming anxious in real life if they get threats of rape or death. As a response, IT businesses have implemented a number of techniques to identify and attempt to combat trolling.
REFERENCES:
Lumsden, K. Morgan, H. 2017, 'Media Framing of Trolling and Online Abuse: Silencing Strategies, Symbolic Violence and Victim Blaming', Feminist Media Studies, vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 3-5
Kimble, M. 2016, 'Online Gendered Harassment and Violence Naming the Harm and Punishing the Behavior', Department of Communication Studies at The University of Michigan, pp. 137-138
CSES, 2019, 'Rapid Evidence Assessment: The Prevalence and Impact of Online Trolling', pp. 18-22
Weckler A., 2021, Facebook will let you limit comments on posts to stop trolls, Independent.ie, viewed 5 April 2022, <https://www.independent.ie/business/technology/facebook-will-let-youlimitcomments-on-posts-tostop-trolls-40260408.html>