I have in the past received thousands of abusive social media messages at a time. I used to feel that not responding to trolls or blocking them was weak, so I would call them out and try to engage in a reasoned debate. The ‘Don’t Feed the Trolls’ guide from the Center for Countering Digital Hate totally changed the way I interact on social media. It showed me, using evidence, why engaging with posts by those who use identity–based hate — against women, LGBT people and racial or religious minorities — is the wrong approach.

Racist, sexist and homophobic trolls are looking for a reaction, because it rebroadcasts their posts to my followers and indicates to social media algorithms that this is something that might be interesting to a wider audience — the opposite effect to what I would want. I now block trolls as standard practice, and I’ve changed my settings so I don’t see as much of their bile. It’s helped my own mental health and I feel better for not inadvertently helping to grow haters’ audiences or feed their ideas.

This piece by Rachel Riley is her response to The Spectator’s Christmas poll question: ‘What have you changed your mind about?’ You can find the full article here