A Look at Trolling in the Online Art Field.

Written Originally for the ISGB Newsletter

–        Hannah Rosner

Over the last few years, I’ve seen a number of articles describing online trolling and/or cyberbullying within the art community.  In addition, a number of friends of mine have noted to me that the tenor of their online experiences have changed since they began in the art fields and first joined social media platforms.  As a result, I wanted to look at how it has affected my friends who are professional and hobby artists, particularly in the lampworking and beading fields.

I put out a posting on Facebook, which seemed appropriate to me.  The responses I got were varied and heartbreaking.  But I realized that the topic was much bigger and more complex than I originally expected.

Today, I’m going to be mainly looking at online trolling, but before I start, I need to note that I have studied psychology in absolutely no way.  I don’t have a degree in it, I haven’t taken classes beyond an Intro to Psychology class almost 30 years ago and I don’t pretend to be a doctor of anything.  I’m not going to be diagnosing anything, and I don’t have a way to stop trolling; I’ve just been overall pretty lucky.  In my next article, I’ll be comparing trolling to cyberbullying.  These articles will only just skim the surface of the problem.

So, what is the difference between a Troll and a Cyberbully?  In both cases, I’ve seen feelings badly hurt.  But for the sake of these articles, I’m going to define them as follows:  Trolls seek to rile online communities and attract attention to themselves.  In other words, trolling is really all about the person doing the trolling – they want to feel smart or to get reactions and it doesn’t matter who responds so long as there IS a response.  As soon as it becomes personal, it becoming bullying; cyberbullies just want to use the Internet to hurt their victims.  In some of the cases my friends shared, a situation that started as trolling became cyberbullying.

The word “trolling” comes from a fishing term.  The fisherman casts a line or net out behind his boat and then pulls it along, hoping for a catch.  Can you see where the online term came from as a result?  The Troll makes a remark online and then waits to see who will become upset by it.

Trolls tend to leave remarks in public settings.  It can be on a forum, as a response to a Facebook post, in a Facebook group, or as a response to a tweet.  The comments can be racist, sexist, profane, and are usually not related to the original topic.  They are opinions not verifiable statements and therefore not considered defamatory.

In three separate cases, professional artist friends told me of sexist trolling instances.  Two were from illustrators, both targeted because the Troll felt that a women shouldn’t be illustrating for the gaming or science fiction/fantasy fiction market.  The third was a from a blacksmith.  He had posted a photo of a friend of his – a woman – working.  The Troll focused on her tank top and wondered online whether she had trouble burning “the puppies.”  The remarks quickly became even more inflammatory.

I showed artwork for nearly 10 years in the science fiction/gaming market and taught for a number of years at a not-for-profit Glass Education center and can tell you that I truly believe that these remarks are based in nothing but insecurity. Ignoring the Troll completely takes their power from them  Fortunately within beading and beadmaking we get less instances of sexism.

There’s absolutely nothing you can say online, however, that will make a racist/sexist/anti-Semitic person change their mind.  If its Facebook, the “block” and “hide” functions are your best friends and the quickest way to regain your peace of mind if seeing the comments bothers you.  If I see a friend getting trolled, I tend to privately send them a message supporting them and then get great satisfaction out of going to the Troll’s page and blocking them before I ever see a thing from them again.  If it’s a forum, many have blocking functions as well.  I tend to ignore Twitter completely.

About three years ago, I found myself in a different type of trolling situation.  This was the grammar or spelling “fix.” While posted under the guise of “just being helpful,” it is usually only designed to make the original poster or one of the people commenting feel unintelligent.  The whole idea here is to shift the focus from the original poster or topic onto the Troll.  In the case of my Troll, I had been teasing an artist friend by referencing a bit of literature (Dante’s Inferno, to be precise).  The Troll hadn’t actually read it, had no idea what I was referencing, and tried to trounce me anyhow.  Unfortunately, I also fell for his trap by responding.

I find the whole grammar and spelling trolling against artists to be completely unreasonable.  Many of us are visual artists, not writers.  We have trouble expressing ourselves with words and instead do it in glass or beads or whatever our medium happens to be.  I can’t tell you how many friends have agonized to me about the dreaded 150 word “Artist Bio.”  Just remember, someone who is trolling you about your writing isn’t you friend and probably won’t purchase from you.  As a result, are they really worth your time?  Go make some great art instead of worrying about them.

A final way that a Troll can harm is by posting about someone else on their own wall/website/forum thread or by contacting third party. but these have real legal implications  For instance, A suspects that B hasn’t been using good business practices somehow and instead of contacting them directly, she posts a public blog about it.  If she uses real names, then she has real victims who can sue her for internet defamation, now referred to as “Twibel.”  “Libel law only requires that a statement was published to a third party,” Attorney Jeff John Roberts explains.

Two other instances: C suspects that D is namedropping without permission (i.e. a piece inspired by someone) and instead of asking directly whether they are allowed to use the style they start a thread about it.  Or E decides that a specific bead is HIS trademarked thing so contacts Etsy and claims (unfounded) that he’s got an attorney that will sue unless Etsy removes everything tagged with that particular thing from their site.   Etsy is lawsuit shy so does no research, doesn’t contact the owners of the shops at all and instead suspends listings on 7 accounts; E has affected 7 other people’s livelihoods of which 6 are actually polymer clay artists and only one is a lampworker.

All three of these instances can affect a small business owner’s finances and obfuscate the line between trolling and cyberbullying.  If given time, energy and cash they can be fought legally as long as the abuser uses real names in their postings.  However, the abuser is placing bets that their victims won’t contact an attorney.

Want to read a bit more about internet Trolls?  My friend Julia shared this great blog post a while back: http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2017/04/troll-tactics.html.