Debriefing
For the debriefing, ask the participants how they perceived the simulation. For example, use the following questions:
1. How do you feel?
2. How did you feel when you received the tasks?
3. What were the strategies that you chose?
4. What was a difficult part during execution of the strategies?
5. Have you ever encountered trolls on social media websites? (Or your friends/family/acquaintance)
Tips for facilitators
When there number of participants doesn’t enable 3 persons in every group, you may also have 2 participants play the
same role in one group.
Make sure that you are familiar with all the roles and be ready to answer questions.
You may also get informed on the situation that has happened in Tblisi and inform about it. (Ravelution Tblisi 2018)
Suggestions for follow-up
A topic which is also very much related to Trolls is “Hate Speech”.
You may find useful information on that topic when searching for the “No Hate Speech Movement”
Useful Links:
https://no-hate-speech.de/en/
https://www.facingfactsonline.eu/
Also interesting: South Park Season 20 Episode 2 - Skank Hunt
A South Park parody on Internet Trolls. (Not for children!)
HAND OUTS
ELVES Last night the police raided several techno clubs in Tbilisi, the amount of the weapons and force used concerned young people and civil society and
they started a massive demonstration in front of the parliament – ravers, activists, queers went out to protest the disproportional power used and fakeness
of the government’s actions (to show the citizens that they are fighting a war against drugs). The activists started asking for more humane drug policies that
would be more caring rather than punishing. In the end they played club music and everybody started dancing. They announced next meeting next day. You
and your friends participated in the protest yesterday, you honestly, don’t understand why people can be angry at you and not the government. You try to
defend yourself. Prepare a strategy to defend yourself and your right to protest, also don’t let the government shift the attention from the main problem –
police violence.
TROLLS The opposition party staged the protests in front of the parliament. Their demands might be very dangerous for the system. We use the practice of
drug planting to arrest very dangerous people, that are threat to our country, but of course, the people shouldn’t know about it, they won’t understand. You
are hired by the organisations affiliated to the government. Your task is to inflame the popular reaction against the activists who protested yesterday.
Therefore, to demotivate the activists to come again to protest. Fortunately, we have some good ways to act on the internet that we know, works:
- Come up with narratives that have no evidence. Just copy-paste random links as an evidence, most people don’t even check them and believe you have an
evidence.
- Ask about how children will live in this situation
- Be aggressive and assertive - Be vulgar - CAPS when needed - Be off topic when
needed - This all can be connected to how foreign powers want the Georgian nation to be extinct, don’t forget that!
- Everyone protesting is basically
trans, gay, drug-dealers, junkies and basically no one likes them, they don’t really have the right to demand anything from us.
HUMANS You woke up, logged in to Facebook and basically stepped into a war. There’s a total mess – people blaming each other and spouting – looks quite
dangerous for the peace in the society. The accusations sound quite serious. It seems like the police have finally addressed the drug-situation, because of
which some people have died recently. They seem to arrest several drug-dealers in the clubs, but some people (especially the activists of “white noise
movement” - which is advocating more tolerant drug-policies) are protesting it. Prepare a strategy which will help you to understand the situation better,
observe and decide.