Online communication in social networks expands the possibility of using aggressive communication due to the anonymous nature, false identification of users and the emergence of special automated programs (bots) that allow the spread of trolling content at high speed. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a surge of online trolling when a situation of crisis uncertainty developed and large groups of people began to challenge official viewpoints and COVID dissidence.
In the context of solving these problems, the authors present their own study of communication strategies of trolling accounts identified in the Russian social network VKontakte during the COVID-19 pandemic. To describe their communication strategies, a system of indicators (tactics) was developed that correspond to the strategies of overt and covert trolling. An overt strategy includes such tactics as verbal aggression, emotional tension, provocation, a call for confrontation, refutation of the official point of view, humiliation of the opponent, transferring the discussion to another topic. The covert strategy includes tactics of irony or ridicule, demonstration of authority, doubt of the status quo, "naive questions" and misleading. As a result, it was concluded that the analyzed trolling accounts use both overt and covert strategies of influence, with the more aggressive (overt) communicative strategy predominating.
