Fake news, haters & cyberbullying. Who they serve and how to defend yourself

We start with fake news: from its birth in the pre-digital world to its “explosion” online. Where do they come from, who produces them and why, how do they spread so quickly and with what tools? The focus is on a few specific and particularly worrying “branches” of fake news: those for political/ethnic use, those with a health theme (vaccines/autism), right up to conspiracy and pseudo-scientific drift (Bilderberg, chemical pathways). This part then concludes with an in-depth study of fact-checking and a manual on how to verify information at first hand and avoid falling into the trap of mystifications. The second part of the book is devoted instead to haters and cyberbullying, explaining the evolution over time of this use of the net and also pointing out possible remedies or methods of behavior if one is a victim of these phenomena. Who are haters, where do they come from, and what are their goals? This section also has a focus on two more “adult” phenomena: doxxing, or the exposure of private information to the public with defamatory intent, and revenge-porn, the dissemination of sexually explicit content for the purpose of revenge. In both parts, the unfolding of the book combines a chronological account of the phenomena with a detailed explanation, with the addition of specific cases and anecdotes of international relevance or strong symbolic value, accompanying everything with data, statistics and reports useful for contextualizing the phenomenon.