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• Political trolling asymmetry is evident on TikTok, reflecting the asymmetric nature of American politics. • More humoristic than malevolent trolling comments and more target their own party than their political opponents on TikTok. • Trolling comments that target their own party are humoristic but malevolent when targeting the opponents. • Republicans target the Democrats more often than they promote their own agenda while Democrats promote their own agenda more often. • Democrats are the target of trolling comments more often, both on their own posts and on Republicans' posts. Political discourse on TikTok is on the rise, but research on the extent and nature of political trolling on the platform is lagging. Addressing this gap, we examine political trolling on TikTok by and towards Democrats and Republicans. Based on content analysis of over 8000 comments and posts, we found that trolling comments on TikTok are more humoristic than malevolent, particularly on Democrats' posts, and that more trolling comments target posts by Democrats than posts by Republicans. We also found that trolling comments target their own party and politicians more often than they target their political opponents, and that more trolling comments that target such posts are humoristic, while more trolling comments that target their opponents are malevolent. Even though the extent of trolling comments on Republicans' posts is higher than on Democrats' posts, Democrats are the target of trolling more often, both on their own posts and on Republicans' posts. Furthermore, Republicans' posts target Democrats more often than they promote their own agenda, but Democrats' posts promote their own agenda more often than they target Republicans. We contribute evidence of political trolling on TikTok that reflects the US' asymmetric politics and politainment, and that raises the need to conduct more nuanced research on the relationships between trolling perpetrators and their targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The extent and style of trolling towards politicians changed between the 2016 and 2020 election cycles, with a significant increase in insulting. • Despite major efforts to combat trolling on twitter, the shift from foreign trolling to domestic trolling may accounts for the change over time. • Trolling asymmetry, driven by the ideological asymmetry that characterizes American politics, is evident in the style and the extent of trolling towards politicians. • Republicans' tweets received more trolling comments than Democrats' tweets. Online trolling toward politicians is noticeable now more than ever before. The increase in online political discourse in recent years on one hand and the increased efforts to curb the spread of trolling and disinformation on the other hand may affect trolling in opposing direction. We examine how four trolling tactics toward politicians evolved between the 2016 and 2020 US presidential election cycles. We also examine the variations in trolling toward Democrat and Republican politicians in light of the asymmetric nature of American politics. Based on thematic content analysis of 9,461 comments on tweets posted by candidates from both parties, we found differences in the extent and style of trolling tactics between the two election cycles, with a significant increase in insulting. We also found trolling asymmetry in the extent and style of trolling comments toward Republicans and Democrats. Informed by theories of online disinhibition and ideological asymmetry, we discuss the trolling asymmetry, and we explain the change in the degree of trolling tactics over time in light of the shift from the Russian trolls to domestic trolling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political trolling on social media platforms is more common than ever before, attracting media and scholarly attention. We examined if trolling target's gender and ideology impact the extent of trolling towards their tweet, based on content analysis of 3,000 Twitter comments. We found both main and interaction effects of gender and political affiliation on trolling, specifically: tweets by female politicians were trolled more than tweets by male; tweets by Republicans were trolled more than tweets by Democrats; and tweets by male Democrats were trolled less than tweets by all other politicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]