As we now live in a world where everyone’s opinions can be heard from all around the globe, it is important to know how to deal with online agitators. These disruptors, often known as trolls, can derail meaningful discussions and provoke emotional responses. Understanding how to effectively handle them is essential for maintaining constructive online interactions and fostering a positive digital environment.
How do you balance the need for free speech with the need to moderate harmful content?
Content moderation isn’t just about blocking, hiding and deleting. I think something that we forget is that responding to a comment is a necessary tool of moderating, and it frustrates me to see some organisation just let comments roll in without responding to them.
How you respond to that comment can be a really powerful tool that helps to galvanise your supporters behind you, and if you don’t do it then you’re only doing half your job.
I think one of the reluctances social media managers have is thinking “is this going to come across too much like my own opinion if I say this?”, and while it’s valid to have thoughts like that, it shouldn’t stop you from responding in the first instance, and try to avoid cookie cutter responses as well.
For example, we get a lot of conspiracy theorists and sovereign citizen movement people commenting on our posts, saying some wildly inaccurate and inappropriate things. I imagine most people would think that normal practice would be to hide and delete comments like that. I don’t, I respond to them. Sometimes I might make a joke at their expense, other times I might just send them a GIF or a meme. And how I respond can actually demonstrate that we’re not tolerating their views by allowing them to say it on our page, but we’re actually challenging it.
What are the key challenges faced by content moderators?
Obviously, disinformation has become a major issue since the COVID-19 pandemic, and as a local government organisation, we have our fair share of comments that tell outright lies.
We call those people out on it and not in a soft way either. We will say “that is not true” or “that is incorrect”, because too often I see others taking a softly-softly, educational approach and it doesn’t work with some people.
I’ve noticed in recent years that conspiracy theorists and people from the sovereign citizen movement in particular work in packs. So, one may post a comment, then another will follow up, and more after them, in an attempt to overwhelm the moderator/s at the other end and get comments turned off (they see this a victory because it validates their claims that they are being “silenced”).
One way we help to make it easier is that we have included in our moderation policy that any comments or questions that aren’t related to the original post may be removed, and that helps us weed out the attempts to derail the conversation.
Read also: Inspiring Engagement at the 2nd Public Sector Comms Week
What are effective strategies for dealing with trolls and agitators without escalating the situation?
I’m probably the worst person to ask this question because I don’t shy away from being cheeky or provocative in my responses to agitators. This probably comes from my background as a comedian more than anything. When you’re on stage and someone derails a show or a performance by heckling, it’s generally for three reasons. They think they are helping, they want to be involved, or they’re trying to disrupt.
I view social media through that lens. If a comment comes through from someone on a post, I assess it and ask, “what is it they are trying to achieve with this?”. And then I go through the process to work out are they trying to help, are they wanting to be involved, or are they wanting to disrupt.
The first two reasons are easy to work with. You can have a conversation with those people and while you may not agree, it’s more often than not productive. People that just want to disrupt, you have to be more forceful, but the way that I do that is I try and get other people observing the conversation onside with me, and one of the best ways to do that is to make people laugh.
Getting people to advocate on your behalf or interject and defend your or a position you have is incredibly powerful. If a troll feels outnumbered, then they will tend to back off and live to troll another day.
There is a risk that something said could be willfully misrepresented so I tend to use self-deprecating humour. I’ve kind of leaned into some of the negative perceptions that people have of comms professionals (we’re unnecessary, we’re not very practical, we spin bad news into positives, we’re not very aware etc.), as a way to try and minimise attack lines that we might receive. It can often stump people as they’re not expecting that level of self-awareness to come back at them.
What advice would you give to other organisations looking to strengthen their content moderation and handle online agitators more effectively?
Be braver. Be bolder. Don’t feel like you can’t say anything back because you’re worried about the response that you might receive. Social media managers and teams need more freedom to respond in the way that they believe is the most appropriate, that enhances the organisations standing in the community. There’s plenty of examples out there of great social media accounts in the public sector that do this, and it’s important that to take lessons from them and see what works for you and your organisation.
Ben Caldwell is a communications professional with over a decade of experience, predominantly in the public sector and local government. Outside of his day job, he is also a stand-up comedian and producer of comedy shows, with over 15 years gigging around New Zealand.
He joined Rangitīkei District Council in 2023, and in his role he has blended his comms and comedy experience together to create the “Ben from Comms” character, who communicates council messaging in an engaging way that has seen a massive increase in people following the council’s social media channels.
Ben Caldwell is one of the speakers for the 6th Annual Social Media for GOV NZ. Check out the event here.
Adrianne Saplagio is a Content Producer at Comms Room, where she combines her passion for storytelling with her expertise in multimedia content creation. With a keen eye for detail and a knack for engaging audiences, Adrianne has been instrumental in crafting compelling narratives that resonate across various digital platforms.
