Among the Trolls

'Full of unbelievable nonsense' - Ian Hislop

'A tour de force' - Jeremy Vine

'An excellent piece of investigative journalism' - Julia Ebner, Telegraph

'A compelling guided tour of a dystopian underworld' - John Naughton, Observer

My name is Marianna Spring and some of my trolls say they want to kill me.

Threats and abuse litter my social media feeds. They infect my everyday life. Sometimes, the people behind the messages try to find me in person. This seems to be the price of venturing into the world of conspiracy theories, hate, and algorithms. And it turns out, I am far from alone.

In 2020, I became the BBC's first disinformation and social media correspondent, and since then I have been trying to understand "conspiracyland." Where does the vitriol come from? What drives otherwise reasonable people to believe that almost everything—from the worst attacks and wars to global health crises and climate change—is a hoax designed to kill or control millions of us?

In Among the Trolls, I tell the first-hand stories of the trolls and the trolled, those behind the information battle that threatens not just the way society works, but also some of the qualities we value most about being human: respect, fairness, tolerance, integrity, and kindness.