Q+A: Troll hunter Ginger Gorman on the Christchurch mosque shootings and cyberhate
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Ginger Gorman, an Australian journalist, says the alleged Christchurch killer appears to have been a 'predator troll'. On
March 15, a gunman shot dead 50 people in two Christchurch mosques. It
was the worst terror attack and deadliest mass shooting in modern New
Zealand history. It was also a symptom of a growing, global problem:
online hate and its real-world consequences.
We don't yet know
all the details about the attack. It would be unfair to blame technology
entirely, given Islamophobia and white nationalism existed long before
online forums.
But technology played a big part. The gunman was
likely radicalised by the alt-right (a fringe, fascist movement found
mostly online). Before the attack, he set up social media accounts,
posted photos of his weapons, and linked a rambling manifesto
referencing internet subculture. He live-streamed the attack on
Facebook, and from there it spread around the world.
Earlier this year, I read "Troll Hunting"
by Australian journalist and cyberhate expert, Ginger Gorman. Over five
years, Gorman gained unprecedented access to the lives and thoughts of
numerous predator trolls — people who threaten or attack individuals or
groups through the use of electronic devices, causing real-life harm to
their targets. Many of the world's most notorious predator trolls are
white supremacists.
READ MORE: * How YouTube spreads extremist ideas that inspire events like the Christchurch mosque shootings * How hate ran riot on the internet following the Christchurch mosque shootings * Staring down internet trolls: My disturbing cat and mouse game
Following the attack, I messaged Gorman, asking if the gunman is likely
a predator troll. He's an archetypal predator troll, she said.
Gorman is in New Zealand this week to speak at an Institute of
Directors conference about cyberhate and corporate responsibility, but
made time for an interview with Stuff. Below is an edited version of our conversation: CHRIS MCKEEN/STUFF
Ginger
Gorman, Australian journalist and cyberhate expert, has spent fives
years researching predatory trolls, online hate and its real world
consequences.Can you explain how your research sheds light on what happened in Christchurch?
"The Christchurch killer fits the profile of a predator troll very
well, unfortunately. He was, by all accounts, on the internet since he
was a tiny kid, and he was quite isolated. So he likely spent a lot of
time imbibing all those ideologies you find in predator
trolls: misogyny, white supremacy, and other types of hatred.
"He hung out on 4Chan and 8Chan and those kinds of internet cesspits. He
was encouraged in his actions by other users. I've seen posts where he
was egged on after he explained what he was going to do. So he wasn't a
lone wolf at all.
"He also employed a technique called 'media
f......', which is a tactic where [terrorists] essentially co-opt the
media into proliferating their messages. He certainly succeeded in that.
I know The Daily Mail published his manifesto in full. The
document is full of media bait. Through it, [the gunman] is signalling
to his white supremacy community.
"Those communities use a lot of
memes. And they're not recent, they're actually very old. So unless
you've been watching them and are embedded in them, you don't know what
they are. It's very easy to lap that stuff up if you're a journalist and
not putting enough thought into [coverage]."
What have your trolling sources been saying since the March 15 terrorist attack?
"One of the presidents of a big trolling syndicate told me almost
immediately [after the attack], the gunman's video was on internet relay
chat (a forum where a lot of predator trolls communicate with each
other). These trolls often work in big syndicates and they're
communicating all the time. The manifesto was also on there immediately,
and is there still.
"Facebook just wasn't quick enough taking
[the video] down. Six months ago, I asked Facebook if Facebook Live was
safe, because at that point there had already been a lot of rapes and
murders broadcast on similar services. They assured me it was safe. It
wasn't though, was it?"
Predator trolling, radicalisation, and terrorism. How does your research suggest these issues are connected?
"They're not really separable in a case like [Christchurch], or even
with most predator trolling. These guys are often online from a very
young age, completely unsupervised. They often come from difficult
family circumstances. They're essentially parented by the internet and
they get radicalised into trolling and in the case of the Christchurch
killer they get radicalised into terrorism.
"This isn't that
uncommon. There are two other terrorists mentioned in my book. When [the
Christchurch attack] happened, I think a lot of people thought it was a
world first. But it wasn't. For somebody watching this space, this sort
of thing was devastatingly obvious. I've been writing about this for
five years.
"It's amazing to me it took a massacre of this kind
for our leaders to take action, and for Facebook to take notice. They've
known this was coming."
Were you surprised the gunman wasn't on any watch lists?
"So the police came out and said we had no idea, [the gunman] wasn't on
a watch list. This is really common in instances like this. Frankly,
law enforcement is completely out of its depth here. Police have to be
better resourced and trained, and they have to know the relevant laws.
Otherwise, we're going to see this again.
"There's evidence the
Christchurch killer was posting all over Twitter at least a couple of
days before the attack. If the police were watching, there was enough
time [to intervene]. It's just they weren't looking in the right places.
"But the other thing is, social media companies really have a case to
answer here. They've been claiming they're not publishers, they've been
bleating about fixing cyberhate since 2006. The fact of the matter is if
they wanted to fix it, they would. They make billions of dollars off
our data and they have the best engineers in the world working for them.
"Governments have to step in and regulate the space, because
[companies] aren't going to do it on their own. I'd like to see a
legislated duty of care for social media platforms, including those like
Reddit, 4Chan, and 8Chan as well as Facebook and Twitter and the like,
because otherwise things aren't going to change."
Do you think the Christchurch attack could represent a turning point in how seriously society takes cyberhate?
"There are a lot of signs political leaders and social media leaders
are paying attention now. I mean, it's tragic it took a massacre of this
scale for that to happen. But maybe this is the moment for change. And
maybe, to honour the lives of those who were slaughtered, this is the
least we can do. To make the world safer for those left behind, and for
our children.
"I think about my two little girls — I don't want
them growing up in a world where they can get killed because of what
happens on the internet."
Writing this book, and now
speaking about it, must have come at a personal cost. Can you tell us a
bit about that, and how you're dealing with it?
"I
became the subject of an orchestrated online hate campaign in 2013,
which is how I became interested in this topic. I'd never heard anything
about trolling before, it was absolutely terrifying, we got death
threats. That's what led me to talking to trolls and finding vicious,
dangerous trolls. Having said that, I had no idea what I was walking
into.
"My book links predator trolling to murder, terrorism,
domestic violence, incitement to suicide. Writing it was incredibly
traumatic. By the end of it, I was really quite alcoholic and was
diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. So, yes,
I'm undergoing a specialised course of therapy to deal with that. This
stuff isn't pretty, but it's a crucial issue for society and I'd say,
it's an emergency." Source: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-shooting/111743226/qa-troll-hunter-ginger-gorman-on-the-christchurch-mosque-shootings-and-cyberhate
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