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9.1 The stereotype of a troll is a person taking pleasure in sending malicious abuse online from their computer/laptop/device.
9.2 Trolls know that when public figures engage with abusive trolls to defend their reputation or their values, this inadvertently spreads and legitimates the trolls' message and tricks social media algorithms into pushing it into a broader array of users' timelines. This helps trolls to spread their message to far more people than they could alone.
9.3 Trolls want you to engage with their content to raise visibility of their propaganda. To reduce this, our strategy for members, staff, and those dealing with trolls on behalf of the Council is:
Do not respond to any negative comments/messages. The Council may respond as long as it is factual. Otherwise refer the person to contact the Council via telephone/email to raise an issue.
If the comment/message is offensive but not abusive, you can hide it.
When a troll targets members/staff/a Council page for abuse, block them immediately.
Do not post saying that you are being targeted; this will simply invite further abuse and sympathy, all of which raises troll content up in prominence.
Get space from social media if the trolling has affected you.
If you feel a message you have received is defamatory or might contain criminal content, e.g. incitement of violence or harassment, then record it. The best way to do this is to take a screenshot. Make sure to capture the time, date, and sender.
Report the person - posts can be reported to the social media company directly.
If the content is potentially criminal, then keep a record and seek advice on whether and how to report it to the police or to discuss it with a defamation lawyer.
Finally, you are not on your own. There are organisations with experience and expertise in online hate, social media tactics and trolling who are there to help. This is a useful contact to use: info@counterhate.co.uk.
The Council welcomes feedback from residents on our digital sites, however our Social Media rules state: "Trolling, Swearing & inappropriate posts (including false news/info on polls to generate votes) will be removed & users banned from the page." If individual Councillors/member of staff are mentioned by name in a negative light on Town Council social media posts, these comments will further be removed, and users banned.