And I don't mean the trolls that may be attracted to Steemit because of its payout feature, I am talking about people recruited before blockchains were even a thing, to create division online.
It is known, it is known that we have disruption agents sent by specific interests to sabotage protests all over the world. I've heard people call them agents provocateurs. When you look up that term, Google will tell you that it is "a person who induces others to break the law so that they can be convicted," but this is not always true in the internet or anywhere else for that matter.
A provocateur could have as a mission to influence people into giving up their credibility in order to discredit the protest, it doesn't have to be related to breaking the law, it's related to manipulating an image. It is not illegal to curse people out on the internet, but it does make you look like you are not worth reading, because you can't convey a message without resorting to violence, even if only verbal.
Even if the protesters manage to stay civil, what stops the provocateur from identifying as one of the protesters and become violent thereby discrediting the subject without having the protesters participate at all in this process?
But what can we do? What can we do when we suspect someone is a paid troll? How do we spot them and expose them without turning into something potentially worse? If there is one thing worse than a sold out troll is the troll police.
One thing you have to remember, whether this is a paid troll, a lonely troll or a combination, is that you have all the power.
It would be best to ignore them all together, but if the subject requires your intervention be on the look out for intention.
You don't have to be really pushy, just say something along the lines of "suppose you are telling the truth, what do you want us to do with this information?"
When you question a troll things will get crazy, quickly too. As tempting as it may be, avoid thinking this out loud at all cost.
Remember that while you may be dealing with this:
You are twice as likely to be dealing with this:
