• by Larissa Faw , December 7, 2017

Freelance developer Seth Calloway is teaming with NC-based Baldwin& and NYC-based Hunter S. & Thompson, as well as freelance developer Kevin Haight and  Calloway's wife, animator/director Yulia Ruditskaya, to introduce "Troll Tax," an online tool that submits a charitable donation in the name of someone else.

“Constructive discussion online has become overrun with trolls who diminish any chance of meaningful conversation,” says David Baldwin, founder, Baldwin&. “We wanted to create a way to take the negative energy of online trolling and turn it into an act of good."

The concept works with users entering the URL of the tweet into https://trolltax.org/ that prompts them to donate to various nonprofit organizations in that troll’s name. Once the donation is made, users can tweet a confirmation back at the troll, announcing publicly that their online rhetoric has prompted a donation.

Users can also install a Chrome Extension to initiate a donation with a single click of a “troll” button.

Although Troll Tax supports what are widely recognized by Americans as left-leaning organizations, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and National Public Radio, the project isn't designed to serve as a political message.

"There are plenty of liberal trolls out there, and we're open to having causes nominated to us to add," says Baldwin. "It's interesting to me that supporting an organization dedicated to defending say, free speech, is seen as liberal, which shouldn't be a partisan issue."

The agencies are using social media and the actual charities to spread the word as a form of fundraising, "which is always a challenge," says Baldwin. He adds the entire project took six months, "given that our time and talents were donated, it had to fit into the everyday flow of our companies."

"There are dark and light sides to the web,” he says. "Trolling may never completely go away, but this is an attempt to turn negativity into something positive.”

Troll Tax donations can be made with any U.S.-issued credit cards and most non-U.S. issued cards with Visa, MasterCard, Discover, JCB, or American Express logos, including credit, debit, pre-paid, or gift cards. Donations are also enabled through Stripe, in conjunction with the Social Good Fund (socialgoodfund.org) and PandaPay (pandapay.io).