‘Trolls the same as goons who threaten in real life’

friends and family, but some people may need professional help. We’ve had around a dozen cases for counselling of people trolled — all women — over the past three months, of which two were walk-ins to the psychiatry department and the rest were calls on a toll-free helpline. Just talking helped and none of them needed a follow-up.

Trolls abuse because they cannot win an argument rationally. They want to make you angry, frustrated and helpless. They thrive on anonymity, which mimics violent crowd behaviour associated with rioting and other forms of mob violence, such as men harassing and molesting women on public transport, among others.

What makes social media a potent tool for misuse is the anonymity and distance it offers the perpetrator. First, there is the physical anonymity. It’s not happening in the perpetrator’s physical presence nor is it usually happening in their name. So, they experience a form of disinhibition, much like the white-hooded Klu Klux Klan members.

Trolling is rarely being done by one person. There is always more than one person involved and they are aroused and instigated by each others’ words because they find strength in numbers. For example, someone else voicing an opinion that matches an inhibited person’s covert thoughts or beliefs encourages them to comment.

Someone else voicing a predominantly present thought in their minds gives mobs a sense of validation, identification, disinhibition and finally, relief, because they find others like them who make their violent thoughts appear socially acceptable. And, because trolling usually happens in groups, they also experience de-individuation, which is a phenomenon in which a person stops being an individual and becomes part of a herd. The individual

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