Kagame's Online Trolls

Once upon a time, a troll was a character in a children's story. A troll was the character who wouldn't let the "Three Billy Goats Gruff" cross the bridge. A troll was a stinky, slimy, green, ugly, monster-like character. 

In the modern cyber-age, "troll" has a new meaning. A troll is someone who stalks online sites with the sole purpose of harassing and bullying others. A troll pretends to be a "real person," while in reality this troll is playing a role. 

Several months ago, users of Twitter and followers of discussions concerning Rwanda and the DRC found out that @RichardGoldston was a troll. There was no person by the name of Richard Goldston. Richard Goldston was made up. This was only caught when the person pretending to be Richard Goldston slipped up while also controlling President Paul Kagame's Twitter account. 

"Richard Goldston" was vile. "He" was vulgar. "He" was threatening. "He" made sexist and misogynistic claims about women. "He" was racist. 

Of course, the Rwandan government claimed that they knew nothing about this account and the person who was the "troll" would be punished. That is quite interesting and undoubtedly false given the amount of trolls coming from the Pro-Kagame camp. 

There are two types of Pro-Kagame defenders. There are those who are politically aligned with Kagame. They stand to benefit financially or politically from his war crimes being swept under the rug. They are real people who are in real positions who do not want to acknowledge the truth that Kagame is directly responsible for at least 6 million deaths. They perpetuate the lie that Kagame only used his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF - once called RPA) army to attack the genocidaires and never attacked innocent citizens despite quotes from Kagame himself to the contrary. They only recognize that Hutus killed Tutsis (a fact no one disputes), but they refuse to recognize that Tutsis also killed Hutus. (This is not termed "genocide" for political reasons because the Tutsis were a rebel army and the deaths they caused were "war deaths" and "collateral damage"). 

The other type of Pro-Kagame defenders are the trolls. They are paid by the Rwandan Government to harass and bully. They are paid to threaten. Let me be very clear. As a person who has been harassed by these trolls, I will give examples: I have had my life threatened for questioning the Kagame narrative. I have been called an instrument of Satan because MegaChurch Pastor Rick Warren sides with Kagame (an entirely different discussion in itself). I have been called a "nothing." I have been accused of having various sexually transmitted diseases (how that applies to anything, I have no idea). The list goes on. 

Again, these trolls are paid by a government to carry out this work! I have to ask, if the narrative the government is telling is true, then why the need for the trolls? Why the need for the threats? Why the need to harass? 

If your side is correct, why do you have to work in secret to intimidate others?