Club Online Zoom Event: Conspiracy Theories and Online Violence – Marianna Spring Discusses Her First Year As the BBC’s Disinformation Reporter
Date: 8 Apr 2021 — 8 Apr 2021 | Venue: Dining Room
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| ONLINE ZOOM EVENT Conspiracy Theories and Online Violence – Marianna Spring Discusses Her First Year As the BBC’s Disinformation Reporter |
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| A year after becoming the BBC’s first specialist disinformation and social media reporter, Marianna Spring will discuss her work covering fake news and conspiracy theories – and the resulting torrent of online abuse and threats. In what she has described as her “crazy first year down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole”, Spring has reported on QAnon, claims that 5G technology was helping the spread of the coronavirus, and the false accusations of election fraud that led to the storming of the U.S. Capitol. Her recent report on Panorama investigated the vaccine hesitancy stoked by online conspiracy theorists. Her work has made her a target of online violence that spiked after she reported on QAnon, the cult-like conspiracy theory that Donald Trump was waging a secret war against a cabal of Satanic paedophiles in Hollywood, the government and the media. A recent UNESCO report found that 73 percent of women journalists surveyed had been the target of online abuse. Moderated by FCC First Vice President Eric Wishart. | ||||||
| Marianna Spring is the BBC’s first specialist disinformation reporter. Her investigations and features humanise the cost of misinformation, the impact of conspiracy theories, online abuse, foreign influence and delve deep into the social media sphere. She also covers breaking news and has grilled top tech bosses and politicians about their tackling of viral disinformation. | ||||||
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