The New York Times can show a liberal bias even when it writes on Internet trolls. In a piece for the Sunday magazine, freelance writer Adrian Chen reported on “a shadowy organization in St. Petersburg, Russia, that spreads false information on the Internet” called the Internet Research Agency.
The word “troll” was popularized in the early 1990s to denounce the people who derailed conversation on Usenet discussion lists with interminable flame wars, or spammed chat rooms with streams of disgusting photos, choking users with a cloud of filth. As the Internet has grown, the problem posed by trolls has grown more salient even as their tactics have remained remarkably constant. Today an ISIS supporter might adopt a pseudonym to harass a critical journalist on Twitter, or a right-wing agitator in the United States might smear demonstrations against police brutality by posing as a thieving, violent protester.
So the best examples of trolls for illustration are an ISIS supporter or a “right-wing agitator”?
HT: @grizzlygraham90
