BBC journalist Marianna Spring receives 80% of online abuse aimed at the broadcaster, it has been revealed.
Spring, 27, the corporation’s disinformation and social media correspondent, is a rising star and increasingly familiar face on the BBC, with her Marianna in Conspiracyland podcast series being played almost 1.5 million times.
Of 14,488 pieces of correspondence that were automatically marked for review and further escalation between January 1 this year and late June, 11,771 were directed at Spring, The Times reported in an interview with the reporter based on data from BBC software.
“It’s really normal to really hate me,” she told the newspaper, adding that she was “quite relieved” to hear about the figures as it validated her concerns about the abuse she was receiving and she was “not going mad”.
Spring took on the disinformation beat during the Covid-19 pandemic amid the backdrop of wild theories on the origins of the virus and vaccines.
After appearing in a Panorama episode about the rise in disinformation and hate spreading on Twitter following the takeover of Elon Musk, the billionaire sarcastically tweeted: “Sorry for turning Twitter from nurturing paradise into a place that has … trolls.”
She was hit with more attacks than ever. “It just felt really Wild West,” Spring said. “A committed bunch of followers see that as a kind of green light to come and bombard you with hate.”
The trolling won’t stop her work, she said: “There are loads of people who get awful online abuse. I don’t get racist abuse, I don’t get homophobic abuse. There are journalists all across the media who experience this.”
“I have to be aware of my physical safety in a way that I never was before. That is the thing I really don’t like,” she added.