| Hi all, it's Eric. Not everybody gets to experience what it feels like to be targeted on Twitter by an authoritarian superpower. Daryl Morey, the general manager of the NBA's Houston Rockets, got that chance last week. Pro-Chinese government Twitter accounts tweeted at Morey more than 16,000 times in the 12 hours following his tweet voicing support for protestors in Hong Kong, according to the Wall Street Journal. The behavior was unusual, but researchers don't believe it was computer-generated. "It looks like there were humans at the keyboard for many of these posts," a researcher told the Journal. "This wasn't primarily a bot swarm. It was a troll mob. Which is a lot harder to deal with." There are any number of reasons to be worried about trolls. Regular people can be chased offline by waves of abusers, for one. But trolls also make it nearly impossible to get an honest sense for what people actually think about a particular incident—presumably one of the key uses of Twitter. Troll brigades distort public debate, muddying issues by tipping conversations towards certain points of view, and discouraging normal people from contradicting the mob. China's government has a history of organized social media manipulation, carried out through its so-called 50 cent army, a group of people employed to operate large numbers of coordinated accounts. "We will take enforcement action on any accounts displaying those behaviors," said a Twitter spokeperson in an email. The company also tries to hide some toxic replies and to kick bots off the platform, but it doesn't give us all the necessary tools to distinguish these professional accounts from those of real outraged citizens. It's easy enough to point out that social media platforms have strong disincentives to crack down here; they want as many users as possible. But maybe it's the media's job to propose solutions as well. I have a few. Perhaps the biggest problem is a core Twitter design feature: anonymity. This has become a key value of the site, and many people are loathe to give it up. Vulnerable populations often benefit from anonymity online, and some of the site's most entertaining and influential accounts have been run anonymously. But anonymity has its downsides, and Twitter could mitigate them while maintaining some of the benefits by just providing more context. It could require people to verify their physical location, or display how many accounts are registered to someone's email address or IP address. Twitter could reveal how many accounts have blocked or muted a particular user, warning that someone might be toxic. None of this would eliminate all malevolent accounts, but a bit of friction could go a long way. Twitter could also reward users that tie their accounts to their real names by giving them greater prominence on the platform. Blue check marks have traditionally designated celebrities and media personalities. Maybe it would be more useful to have a symbol verifying someone as a real-life human being. Twitter is already using algorithms to determine which tweets show up high in people's feeds, and could significantly increase the weight on accounts that demonstrate normal behavior. The company should also give individual users more tools to lock down their account. If blue check marks were expanded greatly, for instance, you could imagine some people opting just to live in that walled garden. The Anti-Defamation League proposes giving users the power to block based on IP address. That seems like a good idea, too. Lastly, Twitter just needs to delete more accounts. While Reddit has plenty of problems of its own, well-moderated communities really shine on the platform. Moderators that rule with an iron fist allow users to interact civilly—and substantively. Twitter has a tougher challenge since it wants to host a single, global, semi-anonymous conversation. Many of its most loyal, long-time users might object. But as the divide between what happens on the internet and the real world breaks down, it's time for the internet to grow up. —Eric Newcomer | 
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