Trolling methodology: buying Twitter ads.

Using "promoted tweets," a white supremacist not only avoids getting blocked by various Twitter users, but he is also able to target the very people who don't want to have to hear him:

Though [Andrew "weev"] Auernheimer didn't say exactly which users/groups he chose to target in his trolling campaign, he listed examples that appeared to jive with the sample of angry responses that followed: people who are active in Democratic political campaigns or animal rights groups; women who shop for fine jewelry; followers of known feminist sites like Jezebel and Feministing.

There is a limit to how much can be done:

When asked about Auernheimer's promoted tweets, a Twitter spokesperson pointed out that the tweets in question had been deleted because they violated the service's hate/sensitive ads policy. The representative declined to comment on whether the promoted tweets service would be tweaked or altered in light of Auernheimer's targeted trolling stunt.

But: should this be dismissed as a "trolling stunt"? It could be compared to the way — in the walking-around world — protesters go to a place they want to protest or, say, right-to-lifers seek to engage with women who are walking into abortion clinics. On line, there's the danger that people will set things up so they only hear the speech of those they want to allow into the comfortable space of their closed minds. Maybe it's good to have a way to override these barriers, to pierce the on-line cocoon.

Presumably, Twitter will do what serves its interests, but what is that? I see that "Twitter [is] at the Crossroads/The company knows it’s in trouble. And its options are bleak."

People are only there to be targeted if they like to hang out on Twitter, and if the atmosphere doesn't please them, they'll leave. I mean, you don't even leave Twitter, do you? You just don't show up so often... and at some point, you notice you don't go there anymore.