How to deal with social media trolls

The internet is a beautiful thing. It helps organisations to spread awareness of their work and raise money online to fund it. Vital services are even being delivered digitally, helping charities to reach more people. But there is a dark side to the web and trolls are one of its nefarious aspects.

The scale of trolling in the sector

Charities Against Hate is a coalition helping to address the issue of hate online. Their purpose is to help social media platforms make their platforms a safe place where people can connect and have conversations, discussions and debates without fear of being trolled.

In December 2020, their research revealed that more than 80% of charity beneficiaries had experienced abuse online. As charities share case studies and put their service users, volunteers, beneficiaries, and staff forward in either media stories or on their own channels, they are potentially subjecting them to hateful comments and trolling.

Charities need to ensure that they have safeguarding in place and know what to do if trolling occurs.

Charity CEOs who are vocal on social media and in the press are often subjected to trolling – particularly on Twitter. In 2019, Social CEOs and ACEVO published a report into trolling among female charity CEOs in the sector and the findings were shocking.

Not only did trolling have a major impact on CEOs personally, 11% of respondents said that trolling also had a major impact on their charity.

Here’s how to spot trolls and deal with them.

What is a troll?

A troll is defined as someone who intentionally causes upset, harm, or offence by provoking people online. They may say inflammatory and/or hateful things on social media, online forums, in comments on blog posts and on internet chat rooms.

Most often they are anonymous, choosing to hide behind their computer screens and keyboards in order to say whatever they please without any repercussions.

How to spot a troll

Organisations need to be careful not to confuse a troll with someone who is critical and/or upset. There will be people who have valid concerns or have a genuine complaint that may come across as angry and irate. It’s important to not immediately jump to the conclusion that they are a troll.

Look at their social media feed to see what content they post and how they reply to others. It should then be fairly easy to tell if they are a troll. Another tell-tale sign is often a profile picture that is an object, rather than a person, or no profile image at all.

If you conclude they are not actually a troll, it’s time to put your social media policy or community guidelines into action. Comms Creatives has a helpful flowchart for responding to social media comments. If they are a troll, here’s how to deal with them.

Don’t feed the trolls

Trolls thrive on attention. Don’t give it to them. No matter what you say, you will never satisfy them with your response. They are not there to listen to reason or to have their perception altered. They are there to incite.

Respond with facts

One or two trolls are not pleasant to deal with but what do you do if you’re bombarded with them? The RNLI recently faced this situation when they stepped in to help rescue refugees at sea.

They were attacked on Twitter by angry ‘supporters’ threatening to cancel direct debits and never donate again because they are a UK charity who should only be saving the lives of UK citizens. How did they respond? By being unapologetic and reinforcing their mission, which is to save ALL lives at sea.

Limit their platform

Rather than responding individually to trolls, which fuels their need for attention, Tweet or post separately to address the issue. You can also adjust your settings to not allow replies if you feel that’s best.

Decide whether to block or report

It’s tempting to just block trolls but this may incite them more. If their behaviour escalates to hate speech or threats, it’s time to not only block them but report them too. You can report them to the social media platforms via their reporting tools but also report them to the police if you believe it to be a crime.

Remember to look after your wellbeing

Without doubt, dealing with trolls is going to impact your mental health and wellbeing or that of your team. If the trolling is taking place en masse and over several days, it’s important to get a rota in place to give people a chance to step away and have time away from the negativity.

CharityComms’ A Wellbeing Guide for Comms Professionals offers case studies, tips, tools and techniques to help look after your own wellbeing as well as your colleagues.