This paper discusses the history of trolling in cyberspace over the years, its origins as a harmless waste of time and bandwidth, and how its definition has changed over the last ten years to something more sinister and threatening. Next, an examination of two possible theories as to why a person would troll is undertaken. Several studies into trolling that have been performed are examined. One posits that the troll is someone who enjoys hurting others, the other that trolls are someone who is reacting to stress in an inappropriate fashion online. Finally, several possible solutions to trolling are discussed, as well as the rationale behind why this is not a simple behavior to prevent.

Albakri, S. H., Shanmugam, B., Samy, G. N., Idris, N. B., and Ahmed, A. (2014). Security risk assessment frame- work for cloud computing environments. Security and Communication Networks, 7(11):2114–2124.

Applebaum, A. (2014, November 28). Another reason to avoid reading the comments. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/anne-applebaum-another-reason-to-avoid-reading-the-comments/2014/11/28/b37a9f30-7722-11e4-a755-e32227229e7b_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.cf9302926462

Asbjørnsen, P. C., & Moe, J. E. (1991). The three billy goats gruff (Vol. 63). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Bishop, J. (2014). Representations of ‘trolls’ in mass media communication: a review of media-texts and moral panics relating to ‘internet trolling’. International Journal of Web Based Communities, 10(1), 7-24.

Buckels, E. E., Trapnell, P. D., Andjelovic, T., & Paulhus, D. L. (2019). Internet trolling and everyday sadism: Parallel effects on pain perception and moral judgment. Journal of personality, 87(2), 328-340.

Cheng, J., Bernstein, M., Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil, C., & Leskovec, J. (2017, February). Anyone can become a troll: Causes of trolling behavior in online discussions. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM conference on computer supported cooperative work and social computing (pp. 1217-1230). ACM.

Citron, D. (2014). Hate crimes in cyberspace. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. doi:10.4159/harvard.9780674735613

Cromar, S. (1992, October 09). Trolling for Newbies (was Garbled anecdotes). Retrieved from https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/alt.folklore.urban/9gXNdotYPVc/TaD3xbBv-IAJ

Hern, A. (2014, October 23). Felicia Day's public details put online after she described Gamergate fears. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/

Indiana University: University Information Technology Services. (2008, May 5). What is a Troll? Retrieved April 6, 2019, from https://kb.iu.edu/d/afhcinternet-troll

Krishna, R. (2017, December 04). Kelly Marie Tran Discovering What It's Like To Be Famous Is A Goddamn Gift. Retrieved from https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/krishrach/kelly-marie-tran-discovering-what-its-like-to-be-famous-is

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Definition: Troll. Retrieved April 6, 2019, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/troll

Mortensen, T. E. (2018). Anger, fear, and games: The long event of# GamerGate. Games and Culture, 13(8), 787-806

Moye, D. (2017, December 28). Kelly Marie Tran Of 'Last Jedi' Facing Racist, Sexist Comments Online. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kelly-marie-tran-racists-last-jedi_n_5a4400fee4b06d1621b6b2bboct/23/felicia-days-public-details-online-gamergate

PCMAG.COM. Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. (2009). Definition of: Internet troll. Retrieved April 6, 2019, from https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/68609/

Pierre, J., MD. (2016, September 1). No Comment: 3 Rules for Dealing with Internet Trolls. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psych-unseen/201609/no-comment-3-rules-dealing-internet-trolls

Poland, B. (2016). Haters: Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.uncg.edu/stable/j.ctt1fq9wdp

Vincent, J. (2016, March 24). Twitter taught Microsoft's friendly AI chatbot to be a racist asshole in less than a day. Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/2016/3/24/11297050/tay-microsoft-chatbot-racist