Judith Donath’s previous work on trolling in Usenet groups was highlighted in a recent Wired article on disinformation.
“A troll can disrupt the discussion on a newsgroup, disseminate bad advice, and damage the feeling of trust in the newsgroup community. Furthermore, in a group that has become sensitized to trolling—where the rate of deception is high—many honestly naïve questions may be quickly rejected as trollings … ’ Donath wrote in 1998. “Compared to the physical world, it is relatively easy to pass as someone else online since there are relatively few identity cues ... Even more surprising is how successful such crude imitations can be.”
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