Concern Trolling

Concern trolling is an offensive psychological tactic. It involves an outward display of seemingly well-intentioned concern in order to have a disruptive effect on the target. While in most cases it is a common and relatively-harmless trolling tactic, it has been efficiently weaponized to dangerous and sometimes lethal ends by astroturf groups and suicide-trolling operations.

Suicide trolls are well known to use concern trolling as a life ruination technique, in order to weaken an opponent. They do this by pretending to be a concerned friend or former friend. By using this feigned position of closeness to the target, they can effectively spread vicious rumors about the target. As suicide-trolling campaigns are generally designed to drive the target insane, they explain away the target's instability as something they are worried about, in order to springboard these rumors.

This particular form of concern trolling has three main desired effects:

1. It shifts blame away from the abuser(s): By pretending to be a concerned friend, a convincing enough concern troll act will deflect suspicions away from those actually responsible, and onto the victim themselves. Thus the victim's distress is not seen as being caused by malevolent external actors, obfuscating the real problem.
2. To isolate them from their social support network: Concern trolls will oftentimes contact places of employment, friends, family members, partners, and more, as a form of triangulation. By spreading these types of rumors, they can tarnish the target's image. This in turn may get the target excluded from social gatherings or important work duties, out of fear that the target's alleged instability may negatively others.
3. To further lawfare attacks: This type of trolling is incredibly effective in places with poorly regulated red-flag laws. By red-flagging a target, they can get the target disarmed and in a position where they cannot defend themselves from stalkers or violent attacks. Experienced concern trolls can even have the target involuntarily committed by the state. Once the target is committed, they may be forced to undergo unnecessary treatments or medications. In turn this can saddle the target with long-term mental health issues and even permanent physical ailments.

When combined with other suicide-trolling tactics, concern trolling can have a very lethal effect. It is not even limited to “fake friends,” as abusive family members and vengeful lovers will oftentimes leverage this tactic as well.

Concern trolling is a common tactic used by astroturf groups and agent provocateurs. In these cases, the operative(s) embed themselves into activist or political groups. Once inside, they voice disingenuous “concerns” in order to weaken morale or send the group on a wild goose chase.

This may also be stacked with mirroring, in which the agent provocateur(s) may accuse other people of concern trolling, in order to eliminate dissent and/or spread further confusion.