Unfortunate days for Instagram bullets. In fact, the sentence on the Serena Mazzini case (of which I talked here) was issued on 3 September, which since June 3, 2024 was awaited that it was able to deny the accusation of “being in charge of a violent, homophobic, misogynist group, dedicated to the dossier and sharing underwear”. The fact does not exist.

Mazzini is a social media analyst that has been dealing with social networks for years now, denouncing their abuses, in particular towards minors, but not only. In fact, his work touches many other aspects, such as performative activism, the exploitation of social and civil issues to obtain visualizations and media power, and the use of social media to discredit other people and spread distorted narratives.

The media attack in June 2024

It is therefore clear that his is a job that can easily get enemies. And in fact, on June 3, 2024, Mazzini was the victim of a calculated and organized attack by numerous influential people on the web, which all together, starting from some Instagram stories by Valeria Fonte, made a rain of infamous accusations fall on her. It was stated that in a Telegram group which was part of which was part, horrible content had been discovered: photographs stolen from the same source and others, violent discourses of incitement to hatred, filing of activists and influencers of the feminist and “left” area.

From nothing, therefore, the accusations were relaunched on numerous profiles with a large number of followers, for a total total of more than millions of users. Carlotta Vagnoli, one of the accusers, claimed to have collected all the material necessary to try Mazzini’s guilt and having filed a complaint. On the basis of these statements, at all demonstrated, Serena was buried by insults and attacks. His years of years was put at risk, they were said lies on his involvement in the proposed law on the protection of online minors, threats came from each side and saw himself surrounded by insulting content, in which he was not given the opportunity to defend himself, nor was the benefit of the doubt: the sentence was already decided.

The sentence gives reason to Mazzini

Too bad that today the true sentence denies all this: Vagnoli had no evidence, as well as not having deposited the complaint if not months later. It was not possible to find elements in support of the accusations, despite the fact that had been boasted screenshots and overwhelming testimonies. After 15 months, in short, it turns out that the accusations were false, and that the attack was nothing more than a massive attempt to discredit Mazzini undermining credibility – and therefore avoiding the risk that his activity had repercussions on the many who attacked him.

Of course, those who organized this media pillory said they were disappointed by justice, indeed “defined victims”; They claimed to have even more to show, other to report, and that they will not stop in front of anything, for the good of the people of the Internet. A little difficult to believe these pathetic statements, in which we even paint as martyrs for being searched, as if the judicial system should make them a favor. Dissure the question by throwing smoke, however, does not change the reality of the facts; Moreover, this fact that the sentences are reliable and just just when they tell them it makes a little smile.

It is of the media lynching that we should speak

However, this is not even the main problem, but the fact upstream: having attempted to destroy a person on a professional and personal level, making hundreds of thousands of people who were violent and incompetent; The habit of calling “denunciation” what instead of calls pillory, media lynching, slander. Social activism, among its many achievements, has obtained the legitimacy of the public accusation and the outrage to the person, through the coinage (borrowed from English) of the word “Call out”: if I am engaged on a social level (on the internet) and I know you are bad, I am legitimized to say it to the whole world, because I do it for the common good. The bad guys must be exposed and exhibited in the square.

This, regardless of the fact that the accusations are truthful or false, should be unacceptable for all. The seat to report someone is not the internet, but the prosecutor. It is not a question of denunciation if you give someone to the meal of your followers, but of instigation to hatred and vilification. This habit is one of the major plagues of the internet, in which we know that it is easy to ruin a person’s life: just make it become viral whatever you want to invent (or, I repeat, even a well -founded accusation), to direct the followers towards the right path, and they will do everything alone: ​​the memes, the tweets, the comments, the infamous stories will multiply alone.

We haven’t learned yet

We should know well that this type of operations can cost the life of those who are victims. We have already witnessed suicides following media gogne, lives destroyed by people’s chatter. Yet, in all this story, the squadrite action of delegitimization always goes into the background: she is guilty, justice has made a mistake! She is innocent, so the culprits are the slanderers! The approach is wrong and dangerous: guilty – on a legal level or not – is those who have started and encourage it, the truthfulness of the accusations, which must be demonstrated in court and not on Instagram has nothing to be anything.

This is what should make us angry, disgust us, and also think. We are following influencers who give them strongly in these deplorable actions; We decide that we don’t give a damn about the rule of law and that we want to entrust justice to social media avengers. It is we who should remove power to those who live by sinking others.