Do we need trolls to annoy us online?

16 Oct 2012, 5:53 pm   -   Source: Rhiannon Elston, SBS
Share This
3 
+ Comment
7

Provoking, insulting, doggedly pushing their opinions or just being outright rude: Trolls exist to upset us, and that’s a good thing, argues Laurel Papworth. She spoke to Rhiannon Elston about the murky waters of online agitating.

RELATED

Provoking, insulting, doggedly pushing their opinions or just being outright rude: Trolls exist to upset us, and that’s a good thing, argues Laurel Papworth. She speaks to Rhiannon Elston about the murky waters of online agitating.

Insight: Trolls - tonight at 8.30pm on SBS ONE

Trolling laws 'inadequate', lawyer tells Insight

RE: Why do we need trolls in our online communities? 

LP: I think first of all we have to define trolls and simply, it’s not just people who disagree with us in a way that we don’t like. So as much as we’d like everybody to think the same as us and have mild disputes, sometimes people are very passionate about the way that they reject us and our ideas and that can feel like trolling. As far as being cyber-bullied, that’s a systemic trolling where it goes on for a long period of a time so it’s usually not just a one-off comment or a short period of time over an hour, but it is continued activity.

Trolling itself at a really fundamental level or how I’ve perceived it in online communities over the years is really somebody who doesn’t care an awful lot about what the debate is about. They like the drama of creating havoc, if you like.

RE: So, you’re talking about trolling on the one hand and cyber-bullying [on the other] as two separate things. Should they be treated differently?

LP: Yeah, definitely. The intent behind the two is very different, quite often. Cyber bullying is usually a power play. It is definitely, deliberately to cause aggravation to someone.

Trolling, on the other hand is about getting people upset and in a lather by presenting a defensible but obnoxious point of view. And it’s often bringing a point of view to a community that in no way would support that point of view. Typical trolling that we see are things like 'lactivist' groups… which are women who support breastfeeding; posting up photos of breasts and breastfeeding on the 'Imams of Islam' Facebook pages and online communities in order to cause outrage in those communities. They have a defensible argument, but they take the argument into a group that will react.

RE: One thing you’ve been saying is that you actually think this is a good thing for online conversation.

LP: It’s a good thing because it forces us continually to look at certain questions in societies and sometimes if people agree on everything, or they don’t like to speak up because the norm - the way society reacts normally - is the acceptable behaviour... then the troll clearly is playing that role of saying, 'You know what I’m just going to go ahead and be the obnoxious one here'. And in a sense, they point out the elephant in the room, or if the emperor has no clothes. And we have comedians in our society that do that. 

RE: We recently saw a case where Aboriginal memes were being posted to Facebook – very hurtful and racially vilifying -- but Facebook was reluctant to remove that page. In fact, I think it ended up being taken down by the people who created it. Do you think Facebook should have stepped in?

LP: There are certainly situations where you report things and you would expect them to be taken down, but we have to be extremely careful about telling an American company that they’re allowed to censor Australian citizens. Because - and unfortunately one man’s joke is another man’s vilification – this has always been the case. I might dislike blonde jokes, because by the way I happen to be blonde, someone else finds them funny.

The reason it’s a dangerous path is because if Australia can insist that Facebook take down Australian pages, then – by the way – so can the Chinese government and so can the Saudi government. So if they find something objectionable, then absolutely the government has a right to ask them, Facebook and Twitter, for those details.

Do you agree that trolls are a good thing for online communities? Leave us a comment with your thoughts.

Watch the interview on YouTube:

Trolls

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube

Your Comments

Trolling

oncewas - from bribie island, 7 months ago

The question should be "Do we need on-line communities" Never been on-line, never been bullied or vilified. Must be getting my "celebrity" dose from writing comments on SBS that nobody reads. Have fun, but don't cry if some troll takes advantage of your revelations of your ego.

TROLOLOLOLOLOL

AJ - from Perth, 7 months ago

This feminista does not know what she is going on about. Really? A 'Social Media Expert'? Find me a 16 year old girl who isn't? By the way "LAUREL", 'Lactivism' is possibly the worst way to get your point across.... Oh noes the poor feminists WAH WAH WAH. What a noble cause... give me a break. Lets face it men troll better. Men created 4chan, men created wikileaks. In fact a men created the internet and in turn men went on to invent the act of trolling the song and its logo.

yes

Josh - from Kingston, 7 months ago

What's her email then?

Trolling

Ned Wood - from Tamborine, 7 months ago

I used to love the Chasers until I saw my hero Joe Hilderbran show himself to be a hypocrite of the first water tonight. Other comments proved that Australians are turning into a nation of wimps and need to get back the sense of humour we were always so proud of. Bullying is another matter all together but for heavens sake define bullying before we start crying every time someone calls us a name. Someone upsets me I get even or drop off.

This is a very charitable take on trolling...

Mercurius - from NSW, 7 months ago

Laurel is giving the trolls way more credit than they deserve. They are not merrie ole japesters. They are not court jesters. They are not comedians. If they ever achieve anything constructive, it is accidental. We don't tolerate hecklers at a eulogy. We don't permit streakers at a sports match, even if they can raise a chuckle or two. We don't allow students to perpetually disrupt a class in the hope that they might say something purposeful once or twice a year. Trolls are in the same category.

Not the solution

Chris - from Melbourne, 7 months ago

Removing anonymity from the is not the solution and harms everyone else.You don't have to walk around in public with your details on your chest, the same should apply. Upseting someone is not a crime.Slandering, defaming, harassing etc are already crimes, and the technology already exists to track people down.It will take another form if it is changed.The weak and the cruel will always exist.This is just government justification to shut down blogs, communincation - divide & conquer the masses.

Makes Sense

Cameron - from Brisbane, 7 months ago

Laurel Papworth's comment are about the most accurate and sensible that I have heard regarding the subject of trolling. Its nice that the media has given the microphone to someone who actually knows what they are talking and not to a techno-phobic reporter or shock-jock who's only aim is to whip the masses into a frenzy of hatred.

Join the Discussion

Name
City / Suburb E.g. Artarmon, Sydney
Title
Comment
You have characters remaining.
Validation
What's this?
This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots.
All submitted comments become the property of SBS. They are moderated, so we reserve the right to edit comments and remove HTML tags. Not all submitted comments will be published. Publication does not mean we endorse the opinions expressed. Please read our terms and conditions for more information.