Troll Hunting

In 2013, journalist Ginger Gorman was trolled online. She received scores of hateful tweets, including a death threat, and a picture of her heavily pregnant (alongside her husband and two-and-half year old daughter) appeared on a fascist website. Once the terror subsided, she found herself curious. Who were these trolls? And how does one fight back?

Over the next five years, Gorman spoke to psychologists, trolling victims, law enforcement, academics and, most importantly, the trolls themselves. By infiltrating their online communities and psyches, she made some truly shocking new discoveries. Syndicates of highly organised predator trolls systematically set out to disrupt and disturb. Some want to highlight the media’s alleged left-wing bias, some want to bring down capitalism and others simply want to have some fun, even if it means destroying the victim’s emotional and financial life.

Gorman has also uncovered links between trolling and real-life crimes such as terrorism, domestic violence and incitement to suicide. In this book, she maps a cohort of men – mostly angry, young and white – who rightly or wrongly feel marginalised and disenfranchised, and are using the internet to express themselves.

An intense and compelling read, Troll Hunting is an important window into the mindset and motivation behind this modern scourge.