Internet trolling is one of the many negatives celebrities who are active online have to deal with. Unlike the past where internet penetration levels were low, and a lot of people weren?t online, celebrities these days wake up to daily fights with trolls.
Wikipedia describes a troll as a person who sows discord on the internet by trying to start arguments and upset people.
The troll?s way of upsetting a celebrity or public figure may either be by dissing them, unnecessarily comparing them to a competitor in the same field or veering off a question asked by the celebrity and go on the offensive.
Weeks ago, an actress was in the news for all the wrong reasons because she insulted a supposed fan for calling her (actress) a drag queen. The actress took time to go through the said fan?s picture collections and reposted one describing the said fan in an equally distasteful manner. Who wins?
I thought it was completely unnecessary for that, and the resultant counter-attacks to have taken place.
So what is the motivation for most trolls? For some, the fun in taking a dig at a celebrity alone is enough.
My advice? Celebrities should learn to ignore this trolls however difficult it may seem. If a celebrity feels the need to respond to trolls, there is no need mentioning them. Just send out a general message NOT with a vindictive or ?I will show you where power lies ?tone. Joselyn Dumas, Efya, Yvonne Nelson, John Dumelo, Sarkodie , Jeremie and other Ghanaian celebrities get trolled consistently but they decide to stay positive through all of that.
If the celebrity is too emotional and as a result can?t ignore those tweets, it will be best to hire someone to manage those accounts (We?ve said this before READ HERE).
You have brands to protect; engaging in Twars (Twitter wars) certainly isn?t the way to go.
