Born in south-west London in 1996, Marianna Spring was appointed the BBC’s disinformation and social media correspondent in March 2020. Co-host of the Americast podcast and a Panorama presenter, her first book, Among the Trolls, is published by Atlantic next month, while her new Radio 4 series, Why Do You Hate Me?, exploring examples of online hate and forgiveness, is out now.
Your book begins with you at five years old hearing about the 9/11 attacks. What kind of child were you?
The very chatty child who the teachers were trying to get to stop talking. I had this little notebook for writing stories and read them to my parents and my poor sister on car trips. They’d have music on quietly, and as I kept reading, I’d hear the music slowly becoming loud [laughs].
Did the 9/11 news scare you?
Yes. I heard my mother quietly mentioning how awful it was to my teacher at school pickup – she used to call me Radar Ears as I was always listening when I shouldn’t. I remember thinking: “How has this happened? Do people do bad things on purpose? I just can’t understand that.” My approach to fear ever since has always been to try to make sense of it.
You’ve grown up with the internet being ever-present. What were your first experiences of it?
The Barbie website, where you could decorate your bedroom. I was so excited about it!
Were you a fan of the film?
I loved it. Not to make this sound serious too quickly, but as someone who tolerates a huge volume of online abuse, it felt like the film was a quite direct way of calling out the problems with misogyny that continue to exist.
You’re the target of more than 80% of the BBC’s online abuse. How do you cope?
The hardest day I’ve had recently is in my book, which is the first time I’ve spoken about it. There was this man sort of living outside the BBC in a tent, and I was being abused, harassed and shouted at. I didn’t feel safe going into the building where I work, but the BBC were brilliant and I have a great support system around me – colleagues and editors who got it, plus friends and family. My approach is to think that there’s always a solution, and if you come up with a solution, it’s going to be OK.
How has the murder of Brianna Ghey, and her mother’s appeal for social media to be banned for under-16s, spoken to you?
Brianna’s mother has shown phenomenal amounts of courage. One of the things I find so sad is that social media plays such a big part in teenagers’ lives that there will always be some way that it plays a part in these horrific events – whether in the organisation of what happened, or the content that people were exposed to.
What can be done?
I always remind people I’m a journalist, not a campaigner, but broader solutions that policymakers talk about – ideas of accountability, transparency, there being repercussions when social media sites don’t deal with this kind of content – would make a difference. The very difficult thing is how any of this stuff works in practice. From speaking to bereaved parents, adults having some oversight of what is being seen seems to be the solution with the most legs, because there just isn’t that level of transparency right now. I also think it’s so important to be able to have offline conversations and say, “Oh, actually, I saw this thing today and it troubled me, can I show it to you?”, and bring stuff into the light.
You interview individuals who got reactions and responses online that they struggle to get elsewhere. Is loneliness today a big problem?
There’s an absence of community in many lives that doesn’t help. Some people feel that there aren’t real-world places they can go for those connections any more, so they go online. In the book, I also talk about the absence of religion and the seeking of meaning through conspiracy, but that’s by no means to compare the two things. Social media is a quick way to gain a sense of engagement, often at the detriment of those involved.
You became a senior correspondent at the BBC 18 months after your first job. Your trolls have criticised your rapid rise.
My trolls would love to say the BBC created this role because they knew the pandemic was coming, which suggests they had an amount of superhuman capability. It was just a case of right place, right time. The very specific topic I cover has become this really big deal over the past four or five years. If I covered a different topic, my career definitely wouldn’t have changed at the same rate.
You went to private school, then to Oxford. Did that give you privilege and confidence?
Without a doubt. Being a very self-assured person also comes from my personality and my mum and dad’s influence. My dad went to state school and was a window cleaner, fixed cars, before deciding to train to be a doctor at a time when that was unusual. My family have always told me I should make the best of the opportunities I’ve been given, and ensure I’m doing something positive for the world. And I do work sociopathically hard!
Elon Musk tweeted about your Panorama investigation of his company in 2023. Where will X be in five years?
The moment it dies will be when it’s no longer the place where police forces or politicians put out their statements. I go there less than I did, but given what I do, it’s still pretty often.
What worries you most about disinformation this year?
AI-generated audio. AI-generated video won’t be a problem, the technology is still catching up with us, but AI audio is incredibly easy to generate.
Do you ever switch off?
I go to see Spurs with my dad, which I’ve done since I was four. It’s a proper troll escape because I don’t look at my phone – I sit and concentrate. And hanging out with my friends, who I don’t ever namecheck. Keeping those people protected really matters to me. I mean, I posted a picture of my family’s 19-year-old cat a while back and it turned into a nasty thread. Someone even called her Chairman Meow – which is quite funny, actually.
Among the Trolls is published by Atlantic (£17.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
