Protect yourself from online trolls

[This article is part of the 2024 Trends Report]

“If you share online about sensitive topics, you risk getting criticized, trolled, and threatened,” said New York University psychologist Jay Van Bavel, PhD. He learned that lesson the hard way in 2021 when he helped fact-check a false claim about Covid-19. In a coordinated online attack, he became the target of hundreds of angry messages from an online mob of conspiracy theorists. Some of them even contacted NYU to try to discredit Van Bavel with his superiors. (NYU’s provost responded by sending Van Bavel messages of support.)

You can’t predict when a post might go viral and become a target for online aggressors. But there are ways to protect yourself online.

• Consider the risks: Trolls are more likely to target members of nondominant groups, such as women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people (Vogels, E. A., “The State of Online Harassment,” Pew Research Center, January 13, 2021opens in new window). And some institutions may not be entirely supportive of their faculty. Speaking out isn’t for everyone, so consider your situation before you engage.
• Protect privacy: Familiarize yourself with the privacy settings on your social media sites of choice and avoid posting family pictures or personal information on public accounts.
• Support colleagues: Not everyone who speaks out has tenure or support from their institutions. If you are in a secure position, consider speaking up when you see a colleague being harassed for fighting back against misinformation. “Targeting someone online is harder if there are more people speaking up collectively,” said Cornell University psychologist Gordon Pennycook, PhD. “If only a few people are standing up, it’s easy to knock them down.”
• Use digital tools: Learn to use built-in tools to mute, block, and report trolls, online abuse, and hate speech. If you get a flurry of attention on X, check to see if you’ve been added to any lists and remove your name from any that seem suspicious. Trolls often add people to lists for easy targeting by other online harassers.
• Let it pass: For Van Bavel, the flurry of interest died down after a few days. That’s typical, Pennycook said. “If you go viral, there’s usually a flood of attention and then it stops, and life moves on. You can hunker down for a week and go back to normal.”

[Related: This election year, fighting misinformation is messier and more important than ever]