Keyboard warrior
{{Short description|Internet term}}
{{use dmy dates|date=August 2024}}
Keyboard warrior, sometimes keyboard cowboy, is a term that refers to a person who makes abusive or aggressive posts on the internet, typically one who conceals their true identity.{{Cite web |title=Dictionary.com {{!}} Meanings & Definitions of English Words |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/keyboard-warrior |access-date=2024-08-09 |website=Dictionary.com |language=en}}{{cite web|last=|first=|title=Meaning of keyboard warrior in English|website=dictionary.cambridge.org|publisher=Cambridge University|date=|url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/keyboard-warrior|access-date=February 19, 2025}}{{cite web|last=|first=|title=Definition of 'keyboard warrior'|website=collinsdictionary.com|publisher=HarperCollins Publishers Limited|date=|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/keyboard-warrior|access-date=February 19, 2025}}
History
The term was first used in the 1960s, with the earliest known evidence of it appearing in the Daily Gleaner in Fredericton, Canada in 1968.{{CN|date=February 2025}}
This term used in the early to mid-2000s to refer to online gamers, often viewed through a particular stereotype: "The mythic keyboard warrior," the International Herald Tribune reported in 2006, "is usually portrayed as a gangly teenage boy hypnotized in the moonlight before a computer screen flickering with assorted night elves, dwarves and the forsaken undead." The term came to be associated with online activism, including by those using the internet as a tool of resistance in more repressive environments.{{Cite web |date=2021-09-09 |title=Keyboard Warrior |url=https://chinamediaproject.org/the_ccp_dictionary/keyboard-warrior/ |access-date=2024-08-09 |website=China Media Project |language=en-US}}
In 2025, Filipino senator Francis Tolentino revealed that the Philippine-based public relations firm InfinitUs Marketing Solutions, Inc. had entered into a contract with the Chinese embassy in the Philippines in 2023 agreeing to hire "keyboard warriors" dedicated to spreading pro-China messaging on social media.{{cite news|last=Mangaluz|first=Jean|title=Chinese Embassy tapped Makati PR firm to push pro-Beijing narratives in PH — Tolentino|url=https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2025/04/24/2438014/chinese-embassy-tapped-makati-pr-firm-push-pro-beijing-narratives-ph-tolentino|access-date=29 April 2025|work=Philstar.com|publisher=Philstar Global Corp.|date=24 April 2025|location=Manila, Philippines}}
In China
In China, for nearly a decade, the term jianpanxia ({{zh|s=键盘侠|p=jiànpánxiá}}) refers to people make abusive or aggressive posts without revealing their identities. The term has often been used by state media to criticize those who speak up online without acting with a sense of justice when facing real-life situations, as well as those who, even by voicing legitimate criticisms, are seen to unfairly criticize the Party-state.
Other
US president Donald Trump has praised his supporters as "great keyboard warriors", calling them, "far more brilliant" than anyone working in the advertising industry.{{Cite web |last=Reporter |first=James Walker |date=2020-05-15 |title=Donald Trump Thanks 'Keyboard Warriors' as They Prepare for 2020 Election |url=https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-keyboard-warriors-election-1504290 |access-date=2024-08-09 |website=Newsweek |language=en}}