Troll wack-a-mole is a losing game

With the latest discussion about the need for a “report abuse” button on twitter, the discussion about how to combat online bullying and abuse rumbles on.

A month or so ago these discussions were largely focused around misogynistic content on facebook.  Emer O'Toole described this kind of content as “an opportunity for feminists”. I would tend to regard it more as an unfortunate distraction.  

While I admire the noble attempts to get every last piece of violently misogynistic/pro-rape content off of facebook & twitter, I cant help feeling that it's a futile exercise which can only do further damage by drawing extra attention to this content. Personally, I had not encountered any of the groups mentioned in the above article & others similar to it, until their well-intentioned authors brought them to my attention. Of course, I imagined they were probably out there, but the internet is full of deeply disturbing content, and we cannot expect to police this in the same way as the images and messages we are exposed to in say, the public space in the form of advertising, or the mainstream media. 

The point is that the facebook or twitter censorship battle cannot be won. Anymore than the battle of the likes or comments can be won on youtube. At least, not without radically changing the nature of all these platforms.

There is no engaging with people determined to provoke. They are by nature irrational and uncooperative. Similar content is bound to reappear instantly. By either condemning them & demanding they be silenced, or by simply pointing others in their general direction, we are giving this online scourge the oxygen that it needs & seeks out in order to thrive and justify its own existence. We ought instead to make them feel as if they are in an echo chamber. And those who make direct, personal threats should be shamed and stigmatized, as was so effectively done to this lowlife, resulting in a most unedifying, and yet somehow not remotely satisfying, crawl-back.  

As for the ladies, I think our time would be better spent producing and focusing on our own content. 

The trolls* may be relentless, but if we multiply the counter-voices we can more than hold our own. I suppose this is what I'm trying to do right now. And this is exactly what Laura Bates, the creator of the everday sexism project, has done. The format is elegant and simple - not leaving any space for comments, arguments or trolls, simply giving a voice to girls (and sometimes men) to express something which in wider society is often invisible or taboo.

But Bates's ground-breaking exercise has also exposed her to a massive outpouring of misogyny - not only in the form of anecdotes, but also web content. I read recently that she had to undergo therapy after seeing close-up footage of a woman being beheaded with a knife. Exposing ourselves to this is both damaging (even though we may feel the damage has already been done) and pointless.

There is something slightly perverse about trawling social media for content that makes one's blood boil, purely to demand its removal. Not to claim of course, that I've never done so myself.

There are two options - troll them, the way male idiots so often troll feminist blogs and articles, or ignore it in favour of other content.

Of course it happens to stumble across this kind of content when one is not looking for it, but I think this is primarily an issue of concern when it comes to children. If I was a parent, even if facebook were to make solid assurances to remove all objectionable content, I'd still regard it as madness to allow my children to surf the internet without any restrictions in place. Young minds (especially female) can be deeply affected by this kind of thing, but perhaps the eventual encounter is inevitable. Loss of innocence is unfortantely, a sad reality hard to avoid forever. But for those of us who wish to continue to protect our own as far as possible, the answer is to just dismiss is as gratuitous provocation, and click away.

I am not saying that these groups are not extremely problematic and potentially harmful, but their reach is not comparable to the more normalized and insidious sexist discourses - such as those vehiculed by politicians, religious figures, or media and advertisers who objectify women all day every day, in public spaces that none of us can avoid. The more "real-world" feminist campaigns - like the banknote and anti-page 3 campaigns in the UK, or the pro-choice movement in Ireland, take on forms of sexism that are widely accepted and deeply entrenched in our societies. If we accept that there is a finite supply of resources and energy within the feminist movement, I'd far sooner see it put towards these efforts - that is, where a tangible goal can be fought for & eventually acheived. With online content that goal is always going to be elusive.

Many of those who engage in crude humour and make rape jokes know better in real life and would never dream of allowing this crude "humour" to manifest itself in their actual interactions, as with so much internet troll-itude. And we should not kid ourselves, the ones who film themselves beheading their girlfriends, even the most stringent facebook moderation can do nothing for.

Tanya Gold has it exactly right when she says, “I deplore rape jokes but I would not think of banning them. I would rather the comics who make them played to empty theatres – and eventually, the solitary mirror. Can our consciences not be our policemen? I have been a journalist for 15 years. I have learned to ignore – even welcome – the hatred. It comes from men who will never be on banknotes, and who publish anonymously..”

Rape threats, and other forms of online misogyny, are a pathetic and cowardly means of trying to assert power by those who evidently do not really have any. We should take this as a sign that things are moving in the right direction.

* I'm aware that points have been raised recently expressing that a distinction exists between a troll (someone who is deliberately and insincerely inflammatory, or who just strings someone else along in a debate for the sake of it) and someone sending violent threats directly to another person. I agree, but for lack of a better word, and because the misrepresentation of trolls is not high on my list of concerns, I'm lumping them together for now.