Identifying and Managing Online Antagonists
By Jon Goldberg
May 2023
Countless articles say that the best medicine for online trolls is to simply ignore them. Responding to their taunting feeds their egos and encourages them to continue. Ignoring them depletes their oxygen.
Deprive online trolls of attention for long enough and they will eventually throw their hands up in defeat and go searching for a more engaging audience elsewhere.
On the surface, this advice makes a lot of sense. But is it correct? The answer is: Not always.
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Jon Goldberg
Jon Goldberg is founder and chief reputation architect of Reputation Architects Inc., a reputation risk-management and strategic-communications firm dedicated to building, protecting and restoring reputations in a world of diminished trust. He serves on the Executive Committee of PRSA’s Counselors Academy.
