The best way of dealing with online trolls? Ignore them – and starve them of oxygen | Stuart Heritage

As Countdown’s human calculator has shown with her Twitter abusers, blocking them – and not engaging – is a better way of dealing with them

If you want to know what sort of world we live in, Rachel Riley has had to block 1,500 people on Twitter. That’s right: Countdown’s human calculator has attracted such a swell of antisemitic hatred that she has been forced to silence enough people to fill Sadler’s Wells.

We know how many people Riley has blocked because she is taking part in a campaign urging people not to publicise the social media abuse they receive. Now, you might argue that going on TV and assigning a hard numerical value to the amount of abuse you get online isn’t necessarily the best way to avoid publicising the amount of abuse you get online. But, hey, Riley’s the numbers whiz, not me.

And anyway, her point holds up. We live in testing times, and we have all been conditioned to be tired and punchy. But lashing out clearly isn’t working. In real life as well as online, it might be time to rediscover the lost art of ignoring dickheads.

Riley has been working with the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, which is doing a pretty terrific job of pointing out the futility of engaging with trolls. Its report points out that hate groups deliberately seek out engagement as a way of boosting their own profiles. And it works. When David Lammy retweeted some racial abuse he had received, for example, the abuser’s account grew in popularity by 14%. A nice quiet block – which would have stopped the abuser tweeting messages to Lammy – would have starved it of oxygen.

Russell Crowe understands the appeal of a block. A few years ago, during an interview with the Guardian, he even suggested that Twitter should make the act of blocking someone more enjoyable, arguing: “When you push ‘Block’, there should be like a nuclear explosion, and that person’s photograph is shattered to a million fucking pieces, so you go: ‘Yeah, see ya mate.’ BOOM.”

Personally, I’ve only blocked 10% of the people that Riley has, and I’m arguably a much worse person than she is. But this is only because I believe a block to be too confrontational. Blockees have a habit of wearing their blocked status as a badge of honour. Trust me, I know. A few years ago, I realised that I had been blocked by Mick Hucknall. I don’t know why. I don’t think I’ve ever said anything particularly critical about him, plus I’m just reaching the point of soft-bellied, weekend-trips-to-Homebase middle age where I can start to sort of see the point of Simply Red. But nevertheless, he blocked me. And it was brilliant. Mick Hucknall blocked me. Me! Clearly, I was special. Then he unblocked me, and I was back to being one of you plebs again. It was awful.

Instead, I prefer the mute option, which prevents you from seeing most of someone’s tweets, but without them knowing it. I’ve muted hundreds and hundreds of people on Twitter. I’ve muted trolls. I’ve muted public figures. I’ve muted people who just happened to ambiently annoy me once. I’ve muted colleagues. I’ve muted friends whose online personas try too hard. And it’s great, because they don’t even know they have been muted, the poor idiots. They are all screaming away like their lives still depend on it, but nobody can hear them. If blocking is like a nuclear bomb, then muting is like slowly poisoning someone’s food. I cannot recommend it enough.

But of course this is what we all should do. It’s what we do in real life. When a swaggering, lagered-up moron gets on your train and starts keening around for a fight, you quietly move carriages. If a shopkeeper is weirdly aggressive to you, you visit a different shop. If a family member is constantly critical of your every decision, you pack your things and move to a different country. We’ve all done that, right? Just me?

Confrontation is wildly overrated in my book. We’re all getting older and our energy is limited; why waste it on people who just want a reaction?

Contributor

Stuart Heritage

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
Online abuse of disabled people is getting worse – when will it be taken seriously? | Frances Ryan
New research shows the extent of this depressing trend. Social media platforms and MPs have to get a grip of it, says Guardian columnist Frances Ryan

Frances Ryan

10, May, 2019 @6:00 AM

Article image
Klout is dead – how will people continuously rank themselves online now?
The app that analysed and scored users’ online followings has closed after 10 years – to make way for a tool that may cheapen social media even further

11, May, 2018 @12:03 PM

Article image
How Gary Lineker and Luciana Berger helped me take the fight to the trolls | Tracy Ann Oberman
After receiving abuse online, I made a podcast celebrating diverse voices, says the actor and writer Tracy Ann Oberman

Tracy-Ann Oberman

02, Apr, 2019 @7:00 AM

Article image
Wiley's racism flowed because social media is a petri dish of hate | Nish Kumar
The rapper will pay for his antisemitism but nothing else will change. Twitter and Instagram were once cute but have turned vicious, writes the comedian Nish Kumar

Nish Kumar

27, Jul, 2020 @5:02 PM

Article image
The hospital selfie is the dose of reality social media needs
So much of what we share online is fantasy, but posting pictures from a hospital bed helps people feel less isolated and can demystify disability and illness

Dawn Foster

30, Jan, 2019 @4:13 PM

Article image
Balancing online safety with the right to anonymity | Letters
Letters: Banning anonymous social media accounts could backfire, says Keith Flett. Plus letters from John Freeman and Paul Komierowski

Letters

27, Oct, 2021 @4:59 PM

Article image
Social network giants pledge to tackle abuse of women online
Facebook, Google, Twitter and TikTok commit to overhaul their platform’s moderation systems

Alex Hern UK technology editor

01, Jul, 2021 @5:00 AM

Article image
The TikTok generation of my kids is not only better informed but more politicised
My family gets its news from different sources. I was amazed how quickly the children learned all about George Floyd’s death – and its searing injustice

Zoe Williams

05, Jun, 2020 @1:11 PM

Article image
Star Wars: The Last Jedi abuse blamed on Russian trolls and 'political agendas'
Report finds half of negative comments aimed at Rian Johnson’s movie came from Twitter bots or trolls, indicating fan backlash was overstated

Andrew Pulver

02, Oct, 2018 @12:33 PM

Article image
‘Never get high on your own supply’ – why social media bosses don’t use social media
Developers of platforms such as Facebook have admitted that they were designed to be addictive. Should we be following the executives’ example and going cold turkey – and is it even possible for mere mortals?

Alex Hern

23, Jan, 2018 @12:27 PM