1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:02,880 Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 2 00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:08,959 Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 3 00:00:09,039 --> 00:00:17,599 Speaker 1: tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hey there, everyone, 4 00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:20,640 Speaker 1: Welcome to the podcast. My name is Chris Poullett. I'm 5 00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:23,040 Speaker 1: an editor at how Stuff Works, and with me as 6 00:00:23,079 --> 00:00:28,200 Speaker 1: always is the incomparable senior writer Jonathan Strickland. You're stupid, stupid. 7 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:32,599 Speaker 1: What we're gonna talk about mean people like that. I'm 8 00:00:32,600 --> 00:00:38,880 Speaker 1: not actually mean in real life, not not that mean. Yeah. Actually, 9 00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:41,920 Speaker 1: what Jonathan's referring to is a group of people who 10 00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:45,440 Speaker 1: are lovingly known as trolls. Yes, or you know, maybe 11 00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:48,960 Speaker 1: not lovingly, but at least known well. They I think 12 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:53,159 Speaker 1: they think it's they probably wear it as a bad embrace. Yeah, 13 00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:56,440 Speaker 1: so trolls. Okay, So let's let's set the background here, 14 00:00:56,480 --> 00:00:59,440 Speaker 1: as we usually do do. Doesn't involve any billy goats 15 00:00:59,480 --> 00:01:02,959 Speaker 1: gruff no, no, And in fact, that's the wrong kind 16 00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:07,360 Speaker 1: of troll. Um For the origin of the term, uh 17 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:11,560 Speaker 1: this the states back to old use net groups, which 18 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:16,240 Speaker 1: started actually in the late seventies UM and usenet is 19 00:01:16,319 --> 00:01:18,960 Speaker 1: kind of uh it's it's been sort of merged into 20 00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:21,880 Speaker 1: the Internet now, but it was sort of a precursor 21 00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:25,080 Speaker 1: to the web as we know it today. Um. And 22 00:01:25,120 --> 00:01:29,120 Speaker 1: it was sort of discussion boards that are all grouped 23 00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:33,839 Speaker 1: around certain topics. And there were certain people who found 24 00:01:33,880 --> 00:01:37,240 Speaker 1: it really amusing to go into these discussion groups and 25 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:40,679 Speaker 1: ask really stupid questions. And they were just trying to 26 00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:44,399 Speaker 1: bait someone into trying to u to to engage them 27 00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:48,320 Speaker 1: in conversation. And the goal was to continually ask more 28 00:01:48,520 --> 00:01:52,560 Speaker 1: stupid questions and uh, just so it's a wind up, 29 00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:54,520 Speaker 1: you know, you're winding the person up. And then at 30 00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:56,640 Speaker 1: the end, the punchline is, hey, guess what, I already 31 00:01:56,720 --> 00:01:59,880 Speaker 1: knew all that stuff. Um, I just made you jump 32 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:04,120 Speaker 1: through hoops through this frustrating conversation for nothing. And uh 33 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:08,200 Speaker 1: they The term for this became became known as trolling, 34 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:11,760 Speaker 1: and it was based off the fishing exercise of trolling, 35 00:02:11,760 --> 00:02:15,280 Speaker 1: where you troll a fishing line through an area that's 36 00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:16,840 Speaker 1: known to have a lot of fish in it with 37 00:02:16,880 --> 00:02:19,480 Speaker 1: the hopes of catching a bite. Same sort of thing. 38 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:22,280 Speaker 1: So on usenet, what some trolls would do is they 39 00:02:22,280 --> 00:02:26,000 Speaker 1: would post the same information through several groups on Usenet 40 00:02:26,120 --> 00:02:29,720 Speaker 1: at the same time, trolling for a bite and if 41 00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:32,560 Speaker 1: they got multiple bites, that was awesome, and you know 42 00:02:32,680 --> 00:02:35,800 Speaker 1: it was it was more or less a kind of 43 00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:39,560 Speaker 1: harmless prank, you know, just sort of an idea of 44 00:02:39,639 --> 00:02:43,880 Speaker 1: you know, if you didn't engage the trolling conversation, then 45 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:45,840 Speaker 1: you were in on the joke and you could enjoy 46 00:02:45,880 --> 00:02:48,400 Speaker 1: it as you saw someone else kind of get more 47 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:54,320 Speaker 1: and more involved. Right exactly, very good reeled in. Um yeah, 48 00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:57,280 Speaker 1: so so yeah, if you're if you're not hooked, you're 49 00:02:57,320 --> 00:02:58,920 Speaker 1: part of the you're part of the gag. You can 50 00:02:58,960 --> 00:03:04,720 Speaker 1: actually enjoy it. But some trolls were kind of more 51 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:08,040 Speaker 1: mean spirited than others, and they would use things, um 52 00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:12,800 Speaker 1: like insults or uh not necessarily insults towards the other users, 53 00:03:12,840 --> 00:03:15,600 Speaker 1: but perhaps to their arguments, or they would use a 54 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:18,480 Speaker 1: spurious arguments on their own side to try and just 55 00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:21,920 Speaker 1: to just to derail the conversation. Um, not to actually 56 00:03:21,919 --> 00:03:27,200 Speaker 1: engage anyone in debate, but rather to cause a discussion 57 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:31,040 Speaker 1: to just fall to pieces. And that's where the whole 58 00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:34,560 Speaker 1: flame bating term came from. It was to start a 59 00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:38,040 Speaker 1: flame war, which is where you get people so mad 60 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:40,880 Speaker 1: they can't resist throwing insults. And then of course, if 61 00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:44,240 Speaker 1: the troll had never insulted anyone. They can say, hey, 62 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:46,320 Speaker 1: why are you being so mean to me? You know, 63 00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:48,760 Speaker 1: I was just here to make a have a conversation. 64 00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:51,120 Speaker 1: I wasn't here to call anyone names or anything. You 65 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:54,720 Speaker 1: could play the helpless victim, um, and the people who 66 00:03:54,760 --> 00:03:56,960 Speaker 1: are hurling the insults are the ones who look like 67 00:03:57,080 --> 00:03:59,520 Speaker 1: the bad guys. Even though that was the trolls goal 68 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:04,240 Speaker 1: the whole time. Now it's not really hard to find 69 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:08,520 Speaker 1: trolls at all. You can you can visit virtually uh 70 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:12,040 Speaker 1: any website. You know. One of the things that's cool 71 00:04:12,080 --> 00:04:17,800 Speaker 1: about the web two point oh overused name revolution another 72 00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:21,680 Speaker 1: over used name, UM, is that there's interactivity on all 73 00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:23,800 Speaker 1: these different websites. I mean you can go to to 74 00:04:24,120 --> 00:04:28,520 Speaker 1: uh any of the news websites, especially in the political 75 00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:31,080 Speaker 1: season we've just gone through. UH, you know, there was 76 00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:34,520 Speaker 1: tons of this going on. UM. You could go to 77 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:37,480 Speaker 1: a for for example, you could go to a conservative 78 00:04:37,760 --> 00:04:40,400 Speaker 1: website or a liberal website, you know, one with an 79 00:04:40,440 --> 00:04:43,600 Speaker 1: obvious bias, and there's always gonna be somebody hunting around 80 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:47,320 Speaker 1: the message boards that says the other candidate is the 81 00:04:47,400 --> 00:04:50,640 Speaker 1: one who is you know, going to be the one 82 00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:53,919 Speaker 1: who solves everything, and your guys a liar, and you 83 00:04:53,960 --> 00:04:56,400 Speaker 1: know that kind of thing is exactly that. Then that's 84 00:04:56,440 --> 00:04:59,240 Speaker 1: the appropriate audience for a troll to go after somebody 85 00:04:59,279 --> 00:05:01,760 Speaker 1: who absolutely you know, I know if I say this 86 00:05:01,839 --> 00:05:04,240 Speaker 1: in this room, the whole room is going to explode. 87 00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:06,279 Speaker 1: But it can be found anywhere. It can be found 88 00:05:06,279 --> 00:05:10,600 Speaker 1: in shopping websites, on news websites, um, you know, virtually 89 00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:15,240 Speaker 1: any place. Yeah, oh sure, certainly, even even the iTunes 90 00:05:15,320 --> 00:05:20,920 Speaker 1: store you'll get comments and the reviews or Amazon. Um. 91 00:05:20,960 --> 00:05:23,080 Speaker 1: So you really don't have to go that far to 92 00:05:23,160 --> 00:05:26,360 Speaker 1: find people who are just trying to bait people into 93 00:05:26,400 --> 00:05:30,560 Speaker 1: an argument. And of course, the more emotionally charged the subject, 94 00:05:30,600 --> 00:05:33,000 Speaker 1: the easier it is to convince someone to get into 95 00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:35,159 Speaker 1: that kind of throw down, which is why in the 96 00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:41,880 Speaker 1: politics region it's so prevalent because politics, for many people's 97 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:45,599 Speaker 1: very personal and very passionate kind of subject. And so 98 00:05:45,880 --> 00:05:48,520 Speaker 1: you you get that that emotionally charged subject, you add 99 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:50,320 Speaker 1: some tender and you throw on a match and of 100 00:05:50,400 --> 00:05:53,400 Speaker 1: course you're going to get a blaze. And some trolls 101 00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:56,159 Speaker 1: all they really want to do is just upset people 102 00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:58,520 Speaker 1: because they think it's funny. You know, it's it's amusing, 103 00:05:58,520 --> 00:06:01,200 Speaker 1: it's it's that whole gotch uh where you tell the 104 00:06:01,240 --> 00:06:04,120 Speaker 1: really long joke that has the really bad punchline at 105 00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:06,360 Speaker 1: the end, and really it's just for your own amusement, 106 00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:10,640 Speaker 1: not for the audience. Not that I know anything about that. Um, 107 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:12,920 Speaker 1: I'm actually known in the office for telling a really 108 00:06:12,960 --> 00:06:15,880 Speaker 1: long joke that has a really bad punchline, and not 109 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:19,320 Speaker 1: just the office, my reputation has spread far and wide, 110 00:06:19,360 --> 00:06:23,640 Speaker 1: but at any room. So I do have some trollish tendencies. 111 00:06:23,839 --> 00:06:25,400 Speaker 1: I have to come out and admit that is a 112 00:06:25,440 --> 00:06:27,560 Speaker 1: kind of trollish thing to do, where you're really doing 113 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:30,440 Speaker 1: it for your own amusement, not for anyone else. Um, 114 00:06:30,480 --> 00:06:33,599 Speaker 1: it's a very selfish kind of thing. And but some 115 00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:36,960 Speaker 1: trolls have other motives besides just you know, trying to 116 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:39,760 Speaker 1: upset other people, like the ones on the political boards. 117 00:06:39,800 --> 00:06:44,640 Speaker 1: Maybe there to actually so discontent among another group's followers. 118 00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:47,800 Speaker 1: So you sit there and you just say, like, one 119 00:06:47,839 --> 00:06:49,960 Speaker 1: trollish way of of doing this is to to come 120 00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:52,120 Speaker 1: across as trying to be sympathetic. Like you said, you know, 121 00:06:52,240 --> 00:06:56,280 Speaker 1: I really like so and so's policy on taxes, but 122 00:06:56,880 --> 00:06:59,920 Speaker 1: do you really think he's gonna follow through that bay 123 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:02,960 Speaker 1: st upon such and such. And the whole idea here 124 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:05,960 Speaker 1: is that you're undermining the opponent while you seem to 125 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:09,000 Speaker 1: be on the side of the other people in the community. 126 00:07:09,240 --> 00:07:11,920 Speaker 1: And um, that's still still very trollish thing to do. 127 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:15,960 Speaker 1: And it's also trollish to uh to gang up on 128 00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:20,520 Speaker 1: the unsuspecting victims to Sometimes there'll be a plant um 129 00:07:20,560 --> 00:07:25,520 Speaker 1: who who is deliberately being playing dumb. I guess you'd say, 130 00:07:25,560 --> 00:07:30,600 Speaker 1: to allow the other person to um post a trollish post, 131 00:07:30,640 --> 00:07:32,360 Speaker 1: and then the other person gets into it with him, 132 00:07:32,400 --> 00:07:36,360 Speaker 1: and before long they have the whole room riled up. UM. 133 00:07:36,480 --> 00:07:39,680 Speaker 1: So it's a you know, it's certainly a trollish thing 134 00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:42,000 Speaker 1: to sort of sneak in the back door and get 135 00:07:42,080 --> 00:07:45,560 Speaker 1: under people's skin and then let him have it. Um. 136 00:07:45,640 --> 00:07:50,000 Speaker 1: Another another tactic is to disguise your identity as someone else, 137 00:07:50,080 --> 00:07:52,280 Speaker 1: which is called uh. And you could even have a 138 00:07:52,280 --> 00:07:56,320 Speaker 1: discussion with yourself. UM. That's called sock puppets, where you've 139 00:07:56,320 --> 00:08:00,360 Speaker 1: got a suck puppet identity and UH and you you 140 00:08:00,360 --> 00:08:02,560 Speaker 1: you could be logged in under one name, have a 141 00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:05,320 Speaker 1: suck puppet logged in under another name, and you're having 142 00:08:05,320 --> 00:08:09,040 Speaker 1: a conversation with the whole purpose to derail whatever conversation 143 00:08:09,080 --> 00:08:12,040 Speaker 1: is going on in that community. Um, and you're the 144 00:08:12,040 --> 00:08:15,080 Speaker 1: one controlling the whole thing. So in that case, you know, 145 00:08:15,200 --> 00:08:17,640 Speaker 1: it's it's it's pretty easy to get people riled up 146 00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:19,880 Speaker 1: because you can just keep escalating it yourself. You don't 147 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:22,040 Speaker 1: have to wait for someone else to do it. Now. 148 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:24,880 Speaker 1: Of course, if anyone has any way of actually looking 149 00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:27,520 Speaker 1: to track back where those comments are coming from, there's 150 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:29,320 Speaker 1: a good chance they're going to figure out, hey, there's 151 00:08:29,360 --> 00:08:34,040 Speaker 1: one person who's posting both of these these lines of dialogue. Um, 152 00:08:34,120 --> 00:08:36,520 Speaker 1: and then you know the gig is up. But that's 153 00:08:36,520 --> 00:08:42,120 Speaker 1: another that's another fairly common tactic on the troll community. 154 00:08:42,520 --> 00:08:44,920 Speaker 1: That's true. And uh, you know a lot of people 155 00:08:44,960 --> 00:08:48,240 Speaker 1: do this as a prank, but some people do not 156 00:08:48,360 --> 00:08:50,280 Speaker 1: do this as a prank. They are doing this to 157 00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:53,800 Speaker 1: actually cause harm. And I would I would say, uh, 158 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:57,920 Speaker 1: it's probably more than minority. Um. But there are some 159 00:08:57,920 --> 00:09:01,520 Speaker 1: some pretty vicious trolls out there. There's some that that 160 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:05,199 Speaker 1: shows such a lack of empathy you start to wonder 161 00:09:05,640 --> 00:09:10,520 Speaker 1: what motivates them to do this kind of thing. Um, 162 00:09:10,559 --> 00:09:12,640 Speaker 1: there's a there are a couple of good examples. We 163 00:09:12,640 --> 00:09:15,200 Speaker 1: we mentioned some in the article. I'll just go over 164 00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:20,199 Speaker 1: one really quickly. Um. Jason Fortuny, who was the infamous 165 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:25,000 Speaker 1: troll who Um. He went on Craigslist and posted an 166 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:28,600 Speaker 1: ad posing as a woman looking for a specific kind 167 00:09:28,640 --> 00:09:34,640 Speaker 1: of suitor. Um, and it was fairly uh risque. And 168 00:09:34,760 --> 00:09:38,360 Speaker 1: he then posted all the responses he got on a blog, 169 00:09:38,760 --> 00:09:43,359 Speaker 1: including personal information of the people who responded. So um, 170 00:09:43,400 --> 00:09:47,160 Speaker 1: all these different pictures and and personal information of all 171 00:09:47,200 --> 00:09:49,319 Speaker 1: these men who had responded to this ad go up 172 00:09:49,360 --> 00:09:53,200 Speaker 1: and suddenly become public, and there's a big, you know, 173 00:09:53,640 --> 00:09:59,080 Speaker 1: outcry of indignation and and and rage against his actions 174 00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:03,480 Speaker 1: because it was constituted a severe breach of privacy. And 175 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:08,920 Speaker 1: his point was saying, hey, you know, I'm just kind 176 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:11,280 Speaker 1: of showing that you've got to be careful with your 177 00:10:11,320 --> 00:10:14,160 Speaker 1: information online. You can't just trust it to anyone. So 178 00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:17,440 Speaker 1: he was kind of taking a uh an approach of 179 00:10:18,600 --> 00:10:21,920 Speaker 1: we should make sure that we're careful with what we 180 00:10:22,040 --> 00:10:24,960 Speaker 1: say and what we share. Yeah, so he may have 181 00:10:25,080 --> 00:10:28,080 Speaker 1: been operating by himself. But there are a couple of 182 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:31,160 Speaker 1: troll communities. Well actually there are a number of them, 183 00:10:31,200 --> 00:10:34,199 Speaker 1: but a couple of them that you discussed in your article, 184 00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:37,199 Speaker 1: and we didn't mention the articles how trolls work. Um, 185 00:10:37,800 --> 00:10:41,280 Speaker 1: but a couple of those communities are anonymous and four chan, 186 00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:43,000 Speaker 1: which are actually sort of one of them is an 187 00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:46,760 Speaker 1: offshoot of the other, right, exactly, Anonymous is an offshoot 188 00:10:46,760 --> 00:10:50,160 Speaker 1: of four chan. Yeah. Uh. The funny thing, um, for 189 00:10:50,160 --> 00:10:54,079 Speaker 1: for those of you listening, was Jonathan was writing this article, 190 00:10:55,000 --> 00:10:56,880 Speaker 1: and uh, he was doing research and he was going 191 00:10:56,880 --> 00:11:00,920 Speaker 1: on the four chan site. Suddenly again, suddenly I get 192 00:11:00,920 --> 00:11:04,000 Speaker 1: an instant message at my computer saying, I don't know 193 00:11:04,040 --> 00:11:06,040 Speaker 1: if I can actually research this at work. I'm afraid 194 00:11:06,040 --> 00:11:08,520 Speaker 1: somebody's going to see this stuff because there is a 195 00:11:08,520 --> 00:11:11,240 Speaker 1: lot of viol I had to turn the images off 196 00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:15,880 Speaker 1: on my web browser. Um. Four chan fur chans a 197 00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:18,120 Speaker 1: message board and it's a graphic message board. So you 198 00:11:18,160 --> 00:11:21,199 Speaker 1: can say, you can upload pictures to this message board 199 00:11:21,240 --> 00:11:24,360 Speaker 1: and only that you can post completely anonymously. You don't 200 00:11:24,400 --> 00:11:27,280 Speaker 1: have to have any sort of handle whatsoever, so you 201 00:11:27,320 --> 00:11:28,959 Speaker 1: don't have to log in, you don't have to have 202 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:31,240 Speaker 1: a password. You just go there, you post your message, 203 00:11:31,280 --> 00:11:35,040 Speaker 1: and you leave, So there's no accountability, there's no responsibility. 204 00:11:35,080 --> 00:11:37,280 Speaker 1: I mean, you can post pretty much whatever you want 205 00:11:37,320 --> 00:11:40,880 Speaker 1: within only there are only a couple of exceptions. Um, 206 00:11:40,960 --> 00:11:45,000 Speaker 1: the moderators look out for child pornography because they don't 207 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:48,120 Speaker 1: want to end up getting under fire for hosting it. 208 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:51,120 Speaker 1: So that's the one of the few things that is 209 00:11:51,160 --> 00:11:54,040 Speaker 1: just an absolute no no on four Chan. And and 210 00:11:54,080 --> 00:11:57,920 Speaker 1: really this stuff only happens on one specific channel within 211 00:11:58,040 --> 00:12:02,520 Speaker 1: four Chan. It's the slash b slash channel um and 212 00:12:02,720 --> 00:12:05,840 Speaker 1: uh it's also known as the random channel. So anything 213 00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:09,880 Speaker 1: goes on this channel, and it's within a very specific section. Unfortune, 214 00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:13,720 Speaker 1: it's in an explicit section, so it's not like it's uh, 215 00:12:13,800 --> 00:12:15,680 Speaker 1: it's not like you're if you go there, you're not 216 00:12:15,720 --> 00:12:19,439 Speaker 1: going to realize that you're gonna see some pretty vile 217 00:12:19,559 --> 00:12:22,719 Speaker 1: stuff or vulgar stuff or pornographic stuff, or however you 218 00:12:22,760 --> 00:12:25,040 Speaker 1: want to define it. But at any rate, stuff that's 219 00:12:25,040 --> 00:12:26,960 Speaker 1: not appropriate for you to look at while you're sitting 220 00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:29,160 Speaker 1: at your desk at work. So that's why I turned 221 00:12:29,160 --> 00:12:32,440 Speaker 1: my images off. But yeah, it's um. The that channel 222 00:12:32,520 --> 00:12:36,000 Speaker 1: has a lot of people who engage in extremely trollish behavior, 223 00:12:36,040 --> 00:12:38,360 Speaker 1: but they're doing it to each other and most of 224 00:12:38,360 --> 00:12:40,480 Speaker 1: the people they're all have the same kind of sense 225 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:43,720 Speaker 1: of humor, which is sort of like anything goes uh 226 00:12:43,880 --> 00:12:46,880 Speaker 1: nothing anyone posts is is sacred. You can make fun 227 00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:50,800 Speaker 1: of whatever topic you want. You can insult the intelligence 228 00:12:51,320 --> 00:12:55,440 Speaker 1: of other users, um, any of that, and it's perfectly fine. 229 00:12:55,480 --> 00:12:57,280 Speaker 1: And you do it with the understanding that the exact 230 00:12:57,320 --> 00:12:59,760 Speaker 1: same thing is gonna be done to you. So that's 231 00:12:59,760 --> 00:13:02,920 Speaker 1: a little different from trolls who go to other communities 232 00:13:02,920 --> 00:13:07,280 Speaker 1: just to disrupt them. But out of this group sprung anonymous, 233 00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:13,079 Speaker 1: and Anonymous is a very specific group of individuals who 234 00:13:13,120 --> 00:13:18,040 Speaker 1: have the goal of not bringing down the Church of Scientology, 235 00:13:18,040 --> 00:13:24,520 Speaker 1: but bringing to light certain alleged practices that the church follows. UM. 236 00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:28,320 Speaker 1: The Anonymous alleges that the Church of Scientology has some 237 00:13:28,559 --> 00:13:33,920 Speaker 1: very draconian practices that separate new members from their families 238 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:37,480 Speaker 1: and drain all of the resources out of their bank accounts, 239 00:13:37,480 --> 00:13:42,319 Speaker 1: savings accounts, things like that. And so they've held protests, 240 00:13:42,400 --> 00:13:46,840 Speaker 1: actual real life protests in various cities around the globe. UM. 241 00:13:46,880 --> 00:13:49,319 Speaker 1: And they usually are masked and to hide their own 242 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:52,880 Speaker 1: identities because the Church of Scientology, uh, they say, will 243 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:59,040 Speaker 1: come after them um litigiously through the court system. So 244 00:13:59,120 --> 00:14:02,760 Speaker 1: they say they wish your remain shall we say yes. 245 00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:06,439 Speaker 1: They claim that there is no real leadership to the group. 246 00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:10,800 Speaker 1: They all share the same goal, but there's no persons 247 00:14:10,800 --> 00:14:13,080 Speaker 1: sitting behind a big desk, you know, in the big 248 00:14:13,120 --> 00:14:19,480 Speaker 1: swivel chair, cackling madly. Um, it's it's hello, Anonymous, right exactly, 249 00:14:19,560 --> 00:14:22,600 Speaker 1: it's it's Uh. People take it upon themselves to try 250 00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:25,160 Speaker 1: and organize events, and then other people support it, and 251 00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:28,280 Speaker 1: it kind of grows out of that from what I understand, Um, 252 00:14:28,880 --> 00:14:31,680 Speaker 1: flash mobs. Yeah, kind of like flash mobs, although a 253 00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:34,120 Speaker 1: little bit there's there's actually a purpose to it. There's 254 00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:38,480 Speaker 1: there is a definite purpose. Yeah, so um that's but 255 00:14:38,480 --> 00:14:41,000 Speaker 1: but definitely the Church of Scientology could has looked at 256 00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:43,440 Speaker 1: this and has referred to them as terrorists. Now, some 257 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:47,720 Speaker 1: people either actually part of Anonymous or claiming to be 258 00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:49,840 Speaker 1: part of Anonymous. This is the tricky part when you're 259 00:14:49,880 --> 00:14:53,960 Speaker 1: when you're dealing with and when your entire community is 260 00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:56,680 Speaker 1: made up of Anonymous contributors, how do you know who 261 00:14:56,880 --> 00:15:00,840 Speaker 1: is and who isn't in that community? But some people 262 00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:06,320 Speaker 1: claiming to have acted on behalf of Anonymous have have 263 00:15:07,640 --> 00:15:11,560 Speaker 1: cause distributed denial of service attacks on Church of Scientology 264 00:15:11,600 --> 00:15:15,640 Speaker 1: websites and things like that, and actual attacks. Whereas Anonymous 265 00:15:15,640 --> 00:15:19,120 Speaker 1: claims that it does not condone these acts at all. Um, 266 00:15:19,160 --> 00:15:23,160 Speaker 1: they're all about protesting and raising awareness, but not about 267 00:15:23,720 --> 00:15:29,120 Speaker 1: causing direct financial harm to the church. And uh, and 268 00:15:29,160 --> 00:15:31,000 Speaker 1: that's where it becomes tricky. Where do you how do 269 00:15:31,040 --> 00:15:34,560 Speaker 1: you define which people are actually part of this group 270 00:15:34,560 --> 00:15:36,920 Speaker 1: and which ones aren't. Are the people who are part 271 00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:39,640 Speaker 1: of this group who are doing these things do they 272 00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:42,080 Speaker 1: not realize that, you know, it's against the wishes of 273 00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:44,600 Speaker 1: the rest of the group, or are Could this be 274 00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:48,920 Speaker 1: someone who's actually trying to discredit anonymous and just by 275 00:15:48,960 --> 00:15:51,960 Speaker 1: acting on their behalf do these things or are these 276 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:54,440 Speaker 1: things happening at all? Of it's crazy, it gets it 277 00:15:54,440 --> 00:15:57,440 Speaker 1: gets pretty tough to to unravel it and figure out 278 00:15:57,440 --> 00:16:00,840 Speaker 1: what's really going on. You spent some time thinking about this, Heaveny, 279 00:16:00,880 --> 00:16:04,720 Speaker 1: I can neither confirm nor deny that. Well, of course 280 00:16:04,720 --> 00:16:08,040 Speaker 1: you did anyway, since you had to exactly that was 281 00:16:08,080 --> 00:16:12,840 Speaker 1: all the research that away poured into that so other 282 00:16:12,960 --> 00:16:15,360 Speaker 1: other troll communities. I just want to mention one really 283 00:16:15,440 --> 00:16:19,560 Speaker 1: quickly because I'm a big fan of a website called 284 00:16:19,640 --> 00:16:23,320 Speaker 1: CHUD which is Cinematic Happenings under Development and it's a 285 00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:26,920 Speaker 1: movie news and rumors site. Um, there were a group 286 00:16:26,960 --> 00:16:29,360 Speaker 1: of people who they have a message board on that side, 287 00:16:29,400 --> 00:16:30,800 Speaker 1: and there are a group of people on that message 288 00:16:30,800 --> 00:16:36,400 Speaker 1: board who uh would derail entire threads about movies just 289 00:16:36,520 --> 00:16:39,760 Speaker 1: to complain about certain movie reviewers or writers on that site. 290 00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:42,960 Speaker 1: And eventually, you know, they were very permissive on this 291 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:45,320 Speaker 1: site for a really, really long time, but eventually it 292 00:16:45,360 --> 00:16:47,320 Speaker 1: just got to the point where the harassment got to 293 00:16:47,640 --> 00:16:51,240 Speaker 1: insane levels, to the point where some of these people 294 00:16:51,280 --> 00:16:55,960 Speaker 1: were posting doctored photos of the young baby daughter of 295 00:16:56,040 --> 00:16:59,240 Speaker 1: the owner of the website in UH and photoshopped in 296 00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:03,080 Speaker 1: horrible ways. Mean, it was really really stomach turning. So 297 00:17:03,240 --> 00:17:07,800 Speaker 1: eventually the moderator banned these individuals and they went on 298 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:12,680 Speaker 1: another message board called Scorched Planet, which has a much 299 00:17:12,800 --> 00:17:17,440 Speaker 1: more lacks kind of policy when it comes to people 300 00:17:17,560 --> 00:17:19,520 Speaker 1: in there, and it just says like, you know, you 301 00:17:20,200 --> 00:17:22,040 Speaker 1: can play here, you can say whatever you want, just 302 00:17:22,680 --> 00:17:24,280 Speaker 1: keep in mind that other people are gonna say the 303 00:17:24,320 --> 00:17:26,439 Speaker 1: same source stuff about you. I don't want to hear 304 00:17:26,440 --> 00:17:30,600 Speaker 1: any complaining about it. Go for it. And so Scorched 305 00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:34,000 Speaker 1: Planet and CHUD had this kind of long war where 306 00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:37,840 Speaker 1: anyone who came over from Scorched Planet onto Chud was 307 00:17:38,520 --> 00:17:42,439 Speaker 1: pretty quickly found out usually and before long was banned. 308 00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:46,000 Speaker 1: And it was just it reached a level of of 309 00:17:47,440 --> 00:17:53,000 Speaker 1: ludicrous proportions because it seemed like every other week there 310 00:17:53,080 --> 00:17:55,199 Speaker 1: was another person who was coming in and kind of 311 00:17:55,240 --> 00:17:59,600 Speaker 1: trying subverting the CHUD message board. So that's the thing, though, 312 00:17:59,640 --> 00:18:02,240 Speaker 1: these guys would go over to this other board switched plan. 313 00:18:02,359 --> 00:18:06,479 Speaker 1: They could plan out there their tactics about how they 314 00:18:06,480 --> 00:18:08,280 Speaker 1: wanted to go about and try and do this. It 315 00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:11,480 Speaker 1: wasn't just like one person causing some problems. It was 316 00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:15,800 Speaker 1: it was a concerted effort. Yeah, speaking of concerted efforts, 317 00:18:15,840 --> 00:18:17,680 Speaker 1: I'd also like to point out the fact that while 318 00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:21,240 Speaker 1: he was doing research for this article, Jonathan got trolled 319 00:18:22,560 --> 00:18:27,280 Speaker 1: completely unintentionally. He was looking up information and found this 320 00:18:27,359 --> 00:18:31,080 Speaker 1: great article that talked about trolls and trollish behavior, and 321 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:33,040 Speaker 1: at the very end, all of a sudden, the language 322 00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:35,960 Speaker 1: changed and it wasn't scholarly anymore, and it was very 323 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:39,959 Speaker 1: silly and uh sort of understating it. But there were 324 00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:43,320 Speaker 1: some hints earlier I shared with you one in particular, 325 00:18:43,359 --> 00:18:45,479 Speaker 1: I guess we won't go into detail, but there was 326 00:18:45,520 --> 00:18:48,359 Speaker 1: there was one assertion made earlier in the paper that 327 00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:52,080 Speaker 1: seemed a little outlandish, not a little, it seemed outlandish, 328 00:18:52,640 --> 00:18:56,080 Speaker 1: but the rest of the language in this scholarly paper 329 00:18:56,200 --> 00:19:00,800 Speaker 1: was very much, uh, it seemed legit. You know, I'm 330 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:03,720 Speaker 1: in a way it sounded like academ speak where you 331 00:19:03,840 --> 00:19:06,960 Speaker 1: just try and mask what you're talking about using really 332 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:09,119 Speaker 1: big words and you hope they've used enough of them 333 00:19:09,160 --> 00:19:13,440 Speaker 1: people won't question what you're really saying. That would be it. 334 00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:17,399 Speaker 1: And uh, yeah, my news speak. You might say to 335 00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:21,119 Speaker 1: go back to our George orwell thing, um, but yeah, 336 00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:23,480 Speaker 1: it was. That was one of those things where I 337 00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:25,320 Speaker 1: was reading, like I was looking to see if there 338 00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:29,440 Speaker 1: were any actual good psychological studies done about the behavior 339 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:32,440 Speaker 1: of trolls, and there there really aren't a whole lot 340 00:19:32,520 --> 00:19:35,360 Speaker 1: of them out there, and this was one that purported 341 00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:40,080 Speaker 1: to be a graduate thesis on on trolls, trollish behavior 342 00:19:40,160 --> 00:19:41,879 Speaker 1: the psychology behind it. So I read it and I 343 00:19:41,960 --> 00:19:44,399 Speaker 1: thought it was pretty interesting, although there were some conclusions 344 00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:47,520 Speaker 1: I thought were kind of, you know, a little strange 345 00:19:48,119 --> 00:19:50,120 Speaker 1: until I got to the last paragraph and they were 346 00:19:50,600 --> 00:19:54,240 Speaker 1: really the last section, and that's when I realized this 347 00:19:54,320 --> 00:19:58,080 Speaker 1: whole thing was just a joke. I just spent and 348 00:19:58,359 --> 00:20:02,439 Speaker 1: you know, thirty minutes reading a fake thesis. So they 349 00:20:02,440 --> 00:20:07,480 Speaker 1: got me. They got now. I feel like we should 350 00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:10,359 Speaker 1: point out that not everybody you see acting like a 351 00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:14,480 Speaker 1: troll on a message board somewhere is necessarily a troll. Um. 352 00:20:14,520 --> 00:20:18,520 Speaker 1: Sometimes people are just well, you know, abrasive. Try I say, 353 00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:23,760 Speaker 1: uh and uh, you kind of have to, sadly, you 354 00:20:23,800 --> 00:20:25,119 Speaker 1: kind of have to bear them out a little bit 355 00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:27,359 Speaker 1: to see if they're actually trying to troll on the board, 356 00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:32,120 Speaker 1: or if they're just very stubborn and very abrupt when 357 00:20:32,119 --> 00:20:35,160 Speaker 1: they talk. Use a little critical thinking, try and see 358 00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:38,360 Speaker 1: if they're using the same sort of behavior in multiple conversations. 359 00:20:38,440 --> 00:20:41,439 Speaker 1: That that's a good indicator right there, they're using the 360 00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:47,200 Speaker 1: same sort of tactics in totally different conversations, you may 361 00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:51,560 Speaker 1: just be dealing with a troll. And uh. In addition 362 00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:54,960 Speaker 1: to that, if you are actually running or moderating a 363 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:58,920 Speaker 1: message board, you know, it's it's you could you could say, well, 364 00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:00,359 Speaker 1: I don't know if I want to even deal with 365 00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:02,879 Speaker 1: this anymore. These people get on my board, what am 366 00:21:02,880 --> 00:21:05,440 Speaker 1: I gonna do? They're gonna take over the place. Um, 367 00:21:05,480 --> 00:21:07,800 Speaker 1: you know, if you if you moderate comments, that's a 368 00:21:07,840 --> 00:21:10,840 Speaker 1: good way to to uh. You know, and some people 369 00:21:10,880 --> 00:21:13,520 Speaker 1: call it censorship. But and the other point of view 370 00:21:13,560 --> 00:21:15,880 Speaker 1: is if they're stating a rational point of view, it's 371 00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:18,320 Speaker 1: one thing. But if they're trolling, well, really they're not 372 00:21:18,359 --> 00:21:21,080 Speaker 1: really contributing much the discussion other than starting a flame war. 373 00:21:21,720 --> 00:21:24,440 Speaker 1: So you know, there there are reasons to maybe look 374 00:21:24,440 --> 00:21:27,520 Speaker 1: at stuff before it goes online. Um, you would probably 375 00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:29,480 Speaker 1: want to tell people you're doing that. But on the 376 00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:33,320 Speaker 1: other way, to suppress views that oppose your own, but 377 00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:36,959 Speaker 1: definitely look to see if if they're legitimate or if 378 00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:39,680 Speaker 1: they're just you know, if it's just a flame bait. Yeah, 379 00:21:39,680 --> 00:21:43,440 Speaker 1: because honestly, that's not really contributing much to the conversation, 380 00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:46,720 Speaker 1: you know, while in opposing viewpoint, you know, as long 381 00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:49,240 Speaker 1: as it's rational, would help out with that. So and 382 00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:53,320 Speaker 1: for other community members, really the best advice anyone can 383 00:21:53,359 --> 00:21:56,239 Speaker 1: give you about trolls is don't feed the trolls as 384 00:21:56,400 --> 00:22:00,000 Speaker 1: don't don't give in and and give them the attention. 385 00:22:00,040 --> 00:22:02,760 Speaker 1: And because that's what they're after. They're after that attention. 386 00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:05,800 Speaker 1: If if you don't fall for that, if you don't 387 00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:08,800 Speaker 1: respond to them, there's no reason for them to stick around. 388 00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:11,639 Speaker 1: They'll just eventually say, well, I'll go and find somewhere 389 00:22:11,640 --> 00:22:14,080 Speaker 1: else where I can get the kind of attention that 390 00:22:14,119 --> 00:22:17,160 Speaker 1: I'm I'm looking for. Um. Not granted that that really 391 00:22:17,160 --> 00:22:20,359 Speaker 1: only applies to the trolls who are just out there 392 00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:23,600 Speaker 1: to annoy other people. If they have the ulterior motive 393 00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:27,960 Speaker 1: of bringing down a community or of undermining someone's position, 394 00:22:28,440 --> 00:22:32,679 Speaker 1: they probably would stick around until a administrator steps in 395 00:22:33,040 --> 00:22:36,400 Speaker 1: or bands them or whatever. But for the most part, 396 00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:38,720 Speaker 1: the best idea is just ignore them, especially if there 397 00:22:38,760 --> 00:22:42,840 Speaker 1: is an ignored feature on the community. I cannot recommend 398 00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:46,119 Speaker 1: that highly enough. I have used the ignore feature on 399 00:22:46,160 --> 00:22:51,720 Speaker 1: several communities to great personal joy. It's definitely made my 400 00:22:51,720 --> 00:22:55,160 Speaker 1: my time on those communities much more pleasant. I'm sorry, 401 00:22:55,160 --> 00:23:03,520 Speaker 1: did you say something nice? Uh? You so? Well? Do 402 00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:05,840 Speaker 1: you have anything else virtual? Should we wrap this up? Yeah? 403 00:23:05,840 --> 00:23:07,879 Speaker 1: I think I think we're getting close. Okay, Well, you 404 00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:10,520 Speaker 1: know what. That's a that's definitely a good conversation. And 405 00:23:10,560 --> 00:23:12,320 Speaker 1: there's more in the article so you can read it 406 00:23:12,359 --> 00:23:15,280 Speaker 1: on how stuff works. So, Chris, can you think of 407 00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:17,640 Speaker 1: anything off the top of your head that's more frightening 408 00:23:17,680 --> 00:23:23,240 Speaker 1: or frustrating than Internet roll Uh? Children? That? Wow, you 409 00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:25,439 Speaker 1: hit a soft spot on me. That's not what I 410 00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:28,879 Speaker 1: was thinking. Of that definitely counts, you know, having my 411 00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:32,680 Speaker 1: own and just saying anyway, well, I was actually thinking 412 00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:35,560 Speaker 1: of something that that recently has been a cause of 413 00:23:35,680 --> 00:23:39,240 Speaker 1: great frustration for many people. I'm talking about our article 414 00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:43,640 Speaker 1: on how stocks and the Stock Market Works. Yeah, let's 415 00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:46,399 Speaker 1: talk about frustrating and frightening. Okay, you beat me. Yeah. 416 00:23:46,760 --> 00:23:51,040 Speaker 1: That's written by Marshall Brain. Oh yeah, her site. Oh yeah, 417 00:23:51,280 --> 00:23:53,080 Speaker 1: so I thought i'd give it a little shout out 418 00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:56,560 Speaker 1: to Mr. Brain. You can read How Stocks and the 419 00:23:56,560 --> 00:23:59,680 Speaker 1: Stock Market Works right now over at how stuff works 420 00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:03,960 Speaker 1: dot com and we'll talk to you against soon. Let 421 00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:06,919 Speaker 1: us know what you think. Send an email to podcasts 422 00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:13,760 Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com. Brought to you by 423 00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:17,200 Speaker 1: the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you