📖 Content moderation glossary
What is an internet troll?
In short
A troll is a person who deliberately posts provocative, insulting or off-topic messages in order to provoke reactions, derail a conversation or annoy other participants.
Trolling is about intent: the troll is not trying to convince, but to get a reaction. Typical behaviour includes bad-faith questions, deliberate provocation, repeated off-topic posts and baiting other users into insults.
Example: under every post of a museum, the same account comments that culture is a waste of taxpayers' money, in slightly different words, and answers each reply with sarcasm. The first comment is an opinion; the tenth is trolling.
It is important not to confuse trolls with critics. A customer complaining loudly about a product is not a troll, and removing them looks like censorship. Moderation should target behaviour that breaks the rules (insults, spam, harassment) rather than opinions. OpenModeration keeps criticism visible and hides clear violations.