INTERNET TROLLS by ESMA KARAGÖZ

Internet trolling has gained an important position in the world of digital culture and digital communication, especially in the last two decades. Internet trolling means showing problematic behavior in the online world. Internet trolls are doing various trolling activities by deliberately spreading false information, promoting online polarization, breaking community rules, sometimes using fake identities to trick people. They do this for political gain, to mobilize intellectuals, to spread populist ideas and misinformation, for revenge, out of boredom, or sometimes just for economic gain. There have been various online trolling activities during the Covid-19 outbreak. For example; before the vaccine came out, internet trolls claimed on social media that some drugs such as Aspirin were good for Covid-19. This misinformation on social media spread quickly all over the world. Social media encouraged the use of wrong medicines. In fact, there have been deaths due to an overdose of the drug "Ivermectin", which is claimed to be good for Coronavirus. Europeans who wanted to buy cheap aspirin at the Edirne border gate in Turkey formed long queues. Later, the scientific world declared that these drugs had no curative effect for Covid-19. Trolls who made deals with pharmaceutical companies took advantage of the pandemic and badly affected society for their economic interests. Another example, when Covid-19 cases increased, social media trolls in Turkey scared people by spreading statements saying that masks were insufficient, disinfectants such as cologne, plastic gloves, bleach will run out soon, and panicked people started to stock up. Long queues for cologne formed in front of markets and pharmacies. The current Turkish government has imposed a purchase limit of 2 colognes to prevent this stockpiling, they declared that there is no resource problem and they distributed free masks to every citizen. Political internet trolls, who wanted to create chaos in the country due to the pandemic, deliberately tried to influence society in the wrong way by spreading this false information. In this way, Internet trolls mislead people and display problematic behaviors that can have bad effects on society.