A troll will create havoc on your public page by starting drama with others.
The troll usually participates in a form of indirect stalking. The troll might not even come to your platform to stalk you, but instead comes to your platform to stalk someone else. Thus, you may not be the main target, but you become a part of the troll’s games to pursue another target who follows you.
Sometimes I forget that people actually do know each other through various means on social media. Yet, I am still often surprised when people with other closer connections come to my platform with beef against each other. It is like being invited to a reunion with people I do not even know. I am just a bystander.
When a troll comes to your platform, it is most often because they want to antagonize you, or they are following someone else they cannot stand and want to harass. I have seen this multiple times, and I have inadvertently found myself in the middle of a triangle without my permission.
There are hundreds and thousands of social media users that follow the same platforms for various reasons. In fact, they generally follow pages that yield them relatable information. But when a user follows the same platforms in an effort to harass another person, it can pose many problems.
As long as the troll and the person they are following are not griping on my page, I do not have a problem because I do not know there is a problem. Normally, these issues stay hidden to me, and I will only know something is going on when craziness pops off in the comment section. Sometimes, there will be hints that the troll and the person they are trolling are both on my platform based on what the troll or the victim of the troll says via their comment posts.
However, once I take note of any issues, I watch with care, and if the issues become continuous, I mute the troll. It is hard for me to tell if the troll is narcissistic or just someone who hurts and wants to retaliate against someone who caused them pain.
Unfortunately, however, I have also had to block both the troll and the victim of the troll too … especially if both the troll and the victim are going back and forth with each other and dragging me into their drama. I do not want to be involved in other people’s conflicts, and I do not need to choose a side. It is none of my business, and since it is not any of my business, I remove myself from the equation of their lives and block them from my platform.
Sometimes, there is no way for me to know if the victim is also not actually a troll and gets off on the back and forth drama on my platform. This is the reason why I block both people involved, but if the victim does not participate with the troll, then the victim remains. Most often, I will go on the assumption that the victim is not a troll and has been the target of the troll’s harassments.
Unfortunate, however, are other onlookers to the platform who could also be participants or flying monkeys of the troll. When they start weighing in on the drama, it certainly does not help matters at all. In fact, the weigh in by the flying monkeys is often a devised attack against both the victim and me. They attack me because they want to control who is allowed to stay on my platform, but it only turns out that I block them too.
That type of drama will not be tolerated on my platform when I am promoting a place for people to come in peace. It is not a matter of not accepting other people’s opinions or striving not to have everyone heard on my platform. It is about protecting peace at all costs.
The troll publicly outs another follower on your platform as a narcissist in an effort to make you block them.
My very first experience under this circumstance was was exactly a year ago. I had just begun to find my footing on Twitter. I was learning so much from other followers, and it was an exciting time for me. One of my followers (who I also followed) had shared some struggles they were having with harassment. The follower never mentioned any names, but it was not long before a troll who had, unbeknownst to me, followed this person to my platform (to become a follower too) began an onslaught of attacks in the comment section.
First, the troll attacked me for even talking to the person. Mind you, I did not even personally know the person or the troll. I just knew the person’s shared experiences. So I was flabbergasted one morning to wake up to a flood of responses in the comment section from not only the troll, but some flying monkeys as supporters of the troll who had launched onto my platform to attack me. I was so dumbfounded that I did not really know how to respond. I read my original post over and over again to determine how anyone could have misinterpreted its meaning.
Then, I searched for clues to understand by scrolling through the pages of the troll and the flying monkeys. I investigated their platforms to understand the true issue before addressing them in the comment section. When I pulled up the troll’s page, I was shocked to find my tweets on the troll’s page in quotes without crediting me or bothering to retweet my original words. As I read through the posts on the troll’s page, it was clear that my words had only been posted to be used against the person they were trolling who followed my platform. This, in turn, caused supporters of the troll to follow my platform too.
Clearly, my requoted tweets (without my knowledge of their repostings) were devised to show that I supported the troll so that when the troll’s supporters came to my platform and found the victim in the comments, they would target me as a supporter of whom they called an ‘abuser’. If it sounds diabolical, that is because it is diabolical. Previous life lessons have taught me to think outside of the box. So, I was onto their trolling games.
Because the troll saw that the victim continued to like my posts and make comments here and there, the troll took to my platform and aired major details about the victim’s personal life. In essence, the troll publicly outed the victim on my platform. I was mortified … literally, I was in disbelief. Not only that, the troll ridiculed me for being a partaker of abuses when I was clueless about what was even going on with the victim. Even the victim had not shared such graphic details or had doxxed anyone.
In addition, the troll publicly demanded that I make an example out of the victim and block them. It did not help that the flying monkeys of the troll left comments supporting the troll and requiring the same of me. I spent an entire day trying to make sense of how a simple tweet was twisted and turned around into something that had nothing to do with the original connotation.
Prior to doing anything about the situation, I reread through all of the posts again. I took note that it was a gradual attack that was built upon over a very short window of time. The victim had begun posting to my account three weeks prior to anything going down. Within the third week is when I noticed that the troll had made disparaging comments underneath the victim’s posts but not necessarily saying anything to the victim.
In fact, the victim and troll did not even communicate with each other. They only commented on the same posts, but an explosion occurred when the troll obviously could stand no more of the victim’s comments and took to upstaging a final post by the victim and exploded and outed the victim in the process.
Being about six months into the platform, I was not sure how to address the situation, but I did take note that this troll had never sent me a DM to say anything … no information about their grievances whatsoever. They just went public. So I went public. It was probably not the best thing to do, but I was not about to allow this troll to bully me on my platform. In my response to the troll, I tried to be as professional as I could be under the circumstances, but after doing so, I realized there was no point because the troll continued to argue, and soon the victim responded in retaliation.
This was not a good look for my platform. My attempts to shut down the issues created even more drama. The actions were disrupting the flow and intentions of my original posts. So, I chose to block the troll, the troll’s followers, and the victim. Frankly, I did not need the drama. I wanted my platform to be a safe place of peace, but it had quickly turned into chaos over a 24 hour period.
It was unfortunate that I had to block the victim too, but I later discovered that the victim operated under two different accounts with a similar name. No later than than I discovered the victim was back on my platform, I discovered that the troll was back too. Then they both seemed to simultaneously DM me their individual sides of the story. It was draining to read about. I wanted no parts of their drama.
They both made themselves out to be victims, and being that I did not know either of them personally enough to make sense of their issues, I told them both that I had no interest in being involved in any drama and suggested that they both seek therapy … separately of course. Neither of them liked my response to them individually, and I do not know if either of them knew that they were both in my DMs. I never told them, but since they did not like my response about therapy they both blocked me. I had to laugh, but I, in turn blocked them too [again].
Shortly after, I took to my platform to reclaim it as a place for peace. I apologized to everyone viewing my tweets for all the drama. Then I deleted 24 hours worth of drama created by the trolls that had actually sabotaged all other tweets. The damage their drama caused turned others away, and rightfully so. It was a mindboggling and exhausting experience. I never want to repeat that again, and I do not plan to either.
For all I know the trolls might have come back on my platform and are now reading and possibly laughing about the drama their trolling issues caused me. I just hope they choose to stay silent this time around or make the decision to move on.
Up next … Troll Games On Your Platform – Part 2
My Voice Unchained 