Do Online Trolling Strategies Differ in Political and Interest Forums: Early Results

Henna Paakki; Antti Salovaara; Heidi  Vepsäläinen

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-61841-4_13

Do Online Trolling Strategies Differ in Political and Interest Forums: Early Results

Henna Paakki, Antti Salovaara, Heidi Vepsäläinen

Department of Computer Science

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Scientific › peer-review

Abstract

This study compares the effectiveness of different trolling strategies in two online contexts: politically oriented forums that address issues like global warming, and interest-based forums that deal with peo- ple’s personal interests. Based on previous research, we consider trolling as context-bound and suggest that relevance theory and common ground- ing theory can explain why people may attend and react to certain types of troll posts in one forum, but pay scant attention to them in another. We postulate two hypotheses on how successful (i.e., disrup- tive) trolling varies according to context: that trolls’ messaging strate- gies appear in different frequencies in political and interest forums (H1), and that context-matching strategies also produce longer futile conver- sations (H2). Using Hardaker’s categorization of trolling strategies on a covert–overt continuum, our statistical analysis on a dataset of 49 online conversations verified H1: in political forums covert strategies were more common than overt ones; in interest forums the opposite was the case. Regarding H2 our results were inconclusive. However, the results moti- vate further research on this phenomenon with larger datasets.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Disinformation in Open Online Media
Editors	Max van Duijn, Mike Preuss, Viktoria Spaiser , Frank Takes , Suzan Verberne
Number of pages	14
Place of Publication	Cham
Publisher	Springer
Publication date	2020
Pages	191–204
ISBN (Print)	978-3-030-61840-7
ISBN (Electronic)	978-3-030-61841-4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61841-4_13
Publication status	Published - 2020
MoE publication type	A4 Article in conference proceedings
Event	Multidisciplinary International Symposium on Disinformation in Open Online Media - Leiden, Netherlands Duration: 26 Oct 2020 → 27 Nov 2020 Conference number: 2 https://2020.misdoom.org/

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Publisher	Springer
Volume	12259
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743

Fields of Science

113 Computer and information sciences

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-030-61841-4_13Licence: CC BY

egf_1Final published version, 270 KBLicence: CC BY

Automated trolling and fake news generation in future social media: Computational and empirical investigations of the threat and its implications
Salovaara, A. (Project manager), Vepsäläinen, H. (Participant), Zafar, B. (Participant), Paakki, H. (Participant) & Ukkonen, A. (Project manager)
01/01/2019 → 31/12/2022
Project: Research project

Automaatio ja trollaaminen sosiaalisen median keskusteluiden manipulaatiossa
Paakki, H. (Speaker)
26 Feb 2025
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk

Cite this

Paakki, H., Salovaara, A., & Vepsäläinen, H. (2020). Do Online Trolling Strategies Differ in Political and Interest Forums: Early Results. In M. van Duijn, M. Preuss, V. Spaiser , F. Takes , & S. Verberne (Eds.), Disinformation in Open Online Media (pp. 191–204). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Vol. 12259). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61841-4_13

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title = "Do Online Trolling Strategies Differ in Political and Interest Forums: Early Results",

abstract = "This study compares the effectiveness of different trolling strategies in two online contexts: politically oriented forums that address issues like global warming, and interest-based forums that deal with peo- ple{\textquoteright}s personal interests. Based on previous research, we consider trolling as context-bound and suggest that relevance theory and common ground- ing theory can explain why people may attend and react to certain types of troll posts in one forum, but pay scant attention to them in another. We postulate two hypotheses on how successful (i.e., disrup- tive) trolling varies according to context: that trolls{\textquoteright} messaging strate- gies appear in different frequencies in political and interest forums (H1), and that context-matching strategies also produce longer futile conver- sations (H2). Using Hardaker{\textquoteright}s categorization of trolling strategies on a covert–overt continuum, our statistical analysis on a dataset of 49 online conversations verified H1: in political forums covert strategies were more common than overt ones; in interest forums the opposite was the case. Regarding H2 our results were inconclusive. However, the results moti- vate further research on this phenomenon with larger datasets.",

keywords = "113 Computer and information sciences",

author = "Henna Paakki and Antti Salovaara and Heidi Veps{\"a}l{\"a}inen",

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doi = "10.1007/978-3-030-61841-4_13",

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Paakki, H , Salovaara, A & Vepsäläinen, H 2020, Do Online Trolling Strategies Differ in Political and Interest Forums: Early Results. in M van Duijn, M Preuss, V Spaiser , F Takes & S Verberne (eds), Disinformation in Open Online Media. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 12259, Springer, Cham, pp. 191–204, Multidisciplinary International Symposium
on Disinformation in Open Online Media, Leiden, Netherlands, 26/10/2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61841-4_13

Do Online Trolling Strategies Differ in Political and Interest Forums: Early Results. / Paakki, Henna ; Salovaara, Antti; Vepsäläinen, Heidi .
Disinformation in Open Online Media. ed. / Max van Duijn; Mike Preuss; Viktoria Spaiser ; Frank Takes ; Suzan Verberne . Cham: Springer, 2020. p. 191–204 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Vol. 12259).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Scientific › peer-review

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N1 - Conference code: 2

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N2 - This study compares the effectiveness of different trolling strategies in two online contexts: politically oriented forums that address issues like global warming, and interest-based forums that deal with peo- ple’s personal interests. Based on previous research, we consider trolling as context-bound and suggest that relevance theory and common ground- ing theory can explain why people may attend and react to certain types of troll posts in one forum, but pay scant attention to them in another. We postulate two hypotheses on how successful (i.e., disrup- tive) trolling varies according to context: that trolls’ messaging strate- gies appear in different frequencies in political and interest forums (H1), and that context-matching strategies also produce longer futile conver- sations (H2). Using Hardaker’s categorization of trolling strategies on a covert–overt continuum, our statistical analysis on a dataset of 49 online conversations verified H1: in political forums covert strategies were more common than overt ones; in interest forums the opposite was the case. Regarding H2 our results were inconclusive. However, the results moti- vate further research on this phenomenon with larger datasets.

AB - This study compares the effectiveness of different trolling strategies in two online contexts: politically oriented forums that address issues like global warming, and interest-based forums that deal with peo- ple’s personal interests. Based on previous research, we consider trolling as context-bound and suggest that relevance theory and common ground- ing theory can explain why people may attend and react to certain types of troll posts in one forum, but pay scant attention to them in another. We postulate two hypotheses on how successful (i.e., disrup- tive) trolling varies according to context: that trolls’ messaging strate- gies appear in different frequencies in political and interest forums (H1), and that context-matching strategies also produce longer futile conver- sations (H2). Using Hardaker’s categorization of trolling strategies on a covert–overt continuum, our statistical analysis on a dataset of 49 online conversations verified H1: in political forums covert strategies were more common than overt ones; in interest forums the opposite was the case. Regarding H2 our results were inconclusive. However, the results moti- vate further research on this phenomenon with larger datasets.

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U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-61841-4_13

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A2 - Preuss, Mike

A2 - Spaiser , Viktoria

A2 - Takes , Frank

A2 - Verberne , Suzan

PB - Springer

CY - Cham

Y2 - 26 October 2020 through 27 November 2020

ER -

Do Online Trolling Strategies Differ in Political and Interest Forums: Early Results

Abstract

Publication series

Fields of Science

Access to Document

Projects

Automated trolling and fake news generation in future social media: Computational and empirical investigations of the threat and its implications

Activities

Automaatio ja trollaaminen sosiaalisen median keskusteluiden manipulaatiossa

Cite this