Dominant Influence of Concern Tactics in Shaping Tech Policy Discussions

In the realm of technology policy, concern trolls have become a common obstacle, often stalling serious discussions with their masked opposition. These individuals claim to support a particular belief but work to oppose it, masking their criticism as concerns.

Professor Rachel Barney, a classics and philosophy expert at the University of Toronto, explains that concern trolls make false statements that sound like the truth or ask questions about the evidence. To combat this, technology supporters need to be familiar with the tactics of concern trolling and implement strategies to identify and call it out.

One effective approach is to establish clear criteria and review mechanisms. Platforms and policy advocates should create stringent review frameworks that require detailed evidence for claims or criticisms. This helps filter out baseless or manipulative inputs and focuses debates on valid issues.

Empowering supporters and affected users with education and legal support is another key strategy. Providing templates, explanations of relevant policies, and access to pro bono legal services can reduce the power of trolls who seek to exploit confusion or resource gaps.

Enforcing penalties for abusive behavior is also crucial. Applying consequences such as temporary suspensions or bans on accounts found to repeatedly spread misinformation or derail conversations disincentivizes trolling behavior and demonstrates a commitment to constructive dialogue.

Differentiating concern trolls from genuine criticism is essential. Understanding that genuine criticism emerges from seeking resolution or improvement while concern trolls aim to provoke emotional responses or derail discussions enables more targeted responses, including ignoring or de-escalating obvious trolling.

Promoting community engagement and transparency is another effective strategy. Engaging the broader technology community in open dialogue with transparency about decision-making processes dilutes troll influence and builds trust in tech policy initiatives.

These strategies collectively help maintain constructive discourse around technology policies, mitigating the disruptive effects of concern trolls who often exploit legal ambiguities or provoke emotional reactions rather than constructive debate.

In recent times, regulatory agencies like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have shifted from focusing on objective fact-finding in official rulemaking proceedings to asking biased and loaded questions. This is evident in the FTC's Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) on data practices, where blatantly biased questions designed to further a preexisting agenda are posed.

Ignoring concern trolls is a common strategy to avoid engaging with them, known as "not feeding the trolls." However, in tech policy discussions, the best option is to not engage with concern trolls directly but to call out their behavior. Concern trolls often raise concerns about small problems as if they are more significant than they really are, and they repeatedly raise the same questions, ignoring valid answers, to make their concerns seem justified.

In conclusion, understanding and countering concern trolls is crucial for maintaining constructive tech policy discussions. By implementing robust review processes, providing education and legal support, penalizing abusive claimants, differentiating genuine criticism from trolling, promoting community engagement and transparency, and not engaging with concern trolls directly, we can ensure that tech policy debates remain focused on valid issues and productive outcomes.

Image credit: Mark König.

[1] Barney, R. (2021). Concern Trolling in Tech Policy. The Markup. [4] Lachapelle, A. (2021). Concern Trolling in Tech Policy: A Critical Analysis. University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law.

In the tech policy sphere, concern trolls are frequent roadblocks, posing as supporters but subtly working against advancements.
To combat these individuals, it's essential for technology advocates to recognize concern trolling tactics and develop strategies to expose them.
A promising approach is to set up rigid review frameworks and demand substantial evidence for claims or criticisms, reducing the influence of baseless or manipulative inputs.
Empowering supporters and affected users with education on relevant policies, legal support, and access to pro bono legal services can help neutralize trolls who capitalize on confusion or resource deficits.
Enforcing penalties for abusive behavior, like temporary suspensions or bans, discourages trolling and demonstrates a commitment to open, fruitful dialogue.
While avoiding engagement is occasionally a sensible strategy ("not feeding the trolls"), in tech policy discussions, it's more productive to acknowledge concern trolling without directly engaging with the trolls themselves.