Meet my troll - an investigation into online abuse

Available for over a year

Marianna Spring is the target of a lot of abuse online. Her job as the BBC’s specialist disinformation reporter involves investigating online conspiracies and fake news. This in turn makes her the target of a lot of abuse - with misogynistic hate directed at her on a regular basis. Research, shared with the BBC, suggests women are more likely to receive this sort of abuse than men. And it's getting worse - often being combined with racism and homophobia. To understand why this is happening - Marianna has made a film for Panorama - setting up a fake troll account on the five most popular social media platforms, to see whether they're promoting misogynistic hate. Social media companies say they take online hate against women seriously - and they have rules to protect users from abuse - including suspending, restricting or even shutting down accounts sending it. In this edition of 5 Minutes On - Marianna reveals her findings and shares the reaction to her investigation. Image Credit: BBC News