A year of threats, insults, defamation, and doxxing – personal data exposed to anyone. Twelve months of fear, helplessness, and silence from platforms. Cristina Irrera, a 26-year-old content creator, is one of many women targeted by a violence that leaves no visible bruises but profoundly impacts daily life, especially when no one seems to pay attention. It’s a form of hatred that leaves countless, small wounds, multiplying under posts with millions of views. And one that no one seems able – or willing – to stop.
The young woman paints a bleak picture, a nightmare that began suddenly and became systematic, an escalation that forced her to change jobs, habits, and even the way she moves around the city. To seek help in defending herself, she launched a fundraising campaign. On the occasion of Safer Internet Day on February 10th, Cristina Irrera shared her experience with Leggo, detailing what it means to live under constant attack. The case highlights the growing problem of online harassment and the challenges victims face in seeking recourse.
How and when did this nightmare begin?
«It started on February 9, 2025. I woke up one morning and saw a huge number of comments under a perfectly normal video of mine. I was eating pangoccioli in Paris, not discussing sensitive topics, there was nothing particularly noteworthy. From February to July, the situation continued like that, then something happened in July – I still don’t quite know what – because from that moment on, the comments became daily and much more serious: death threats directed at me, my family, my boyfriend, and even my dog. Behind these comments, there is definitely a person or a group of people who have been doing this for years. The comments themselves often repeat that this activity has been going on since 2018. It happens under posts from huge pages, like La Repubblica, Leggo, Il Corriere della Sera, and even international pages. Until December, in addition to the “standard” comments, I would receive one or two different, more “personal” comments each day, where they would tell me something more. They’ve been repeating to me for years that they’ve been providing this “service” – I don’t even know what to call it – since 2018, targeting creators and influencers».
Do these messages arrive only in the comments, or also privately?
«Only through comments. They’ve never written to me in private chat».
Who are these users who are commenting?
«At first, I thought they were bots or fake accounts, but they are real accounts, often hacked. They are profiles of people who tried to buy followers on a website: instead of followers, that site steals their login credentials and uses them as a package. Those who buy comments can purchase, for example, 150 profiles that will leave 150 comments under a post. I discovered this because, between July and August, I contacted these profiles commenting on my social media. Everyone I spoke to told me the same thing: they had tried to buy followers and had lost control of their account since then».
In recent months, the situation has worsened further. She has also been accused of defrauding the elderly.
«Yes. From February to November, I kept receiving the same comments, identical ones. At one point, as a provocation, I replied saying, “Guys, at least a little imagination?” From there, everything changed. Since I couldn’t do anything – the postal police weren’t helping me, I didn’t know who to turn to – from that moment on, I became “the one who scams the elderly”. The problem is that these comments appear under huge pages, with millions of views. Many people, real people, observe them and actually believe them».
With the accusation of defrauding the elderly, have real people contacted her?
«Yes. They write to me on WhatsApp, they even call me at night. 20, 30, 50 calls a day. Some threaten me, saying they will come to my house. One wrote to me from Switzerland, saying he would harm me. It would be enough to click on my profile to understand what’s behind it, but many people prefer to believe the comments. I live in a state of terror. I always carry pepper spray with me, and I only proceed out with my dog in the evening».
When she realized it was a serious and ongoing problem, what did she do? Did she contact Meta?
«Meta never responded to me. I reported the comments and received a reply stating that they did not violate any rules. In my mind, I thought: so threatening to dismember and kill me isn’t enough? sometimes they reported me. If I responded in a moment of nervousness, I was reported. At one point, I gave up: neither Meta nor the postal police were helping me. Now I will proceed with a complaint to the public prosecutor’s office».
What did the postal police tell her?
«They had me file three complaints. Every month, I would return to supplement the complaint, because I kept receiving longer and more detailed comments, clearly written by a real person. They told me that the first thing to do would be to close all those profiles. Instead, I see the same accounts circulating since July, along with fresh ones. I recognize them. I haven’t received any updates from them. Nothing».
She spoke of “special” comments, different from the others. What kind of messages are they?
«I have a file that I handed over to my lawyers and the public prosecutor’s office, in chronological order from July 2nd to yesterday. If I publish a video about a deceased woman, they respond referencing that video, with specific threats. At first, they said they were a group of ‘maranza,’ with Don Alì as their leader. I once talked about him in a live stream, and from there came a lot of comments about him, about me “slandering” him. Once, they even sent me an invoice: they told me they had spent money to harass me and that I had to reimburse them. They sent me a payment link. Lately, however, they say they are Italian, far-right fascists».
Does she have any idea how or why this all started?
«I feel they are people who hate women. They almost exclusively target women. I know I’m not the only one: another girl experienced something similar in December. Under my posts, they posted her number, her mother’s, and her father’s. They’ve been doing this for a long time, we don’t know if it’s one person or an organized group. Whatever I do, they notice it. I made my profile private, and the comments appeared on other profiles. On February 9th, I received a comment saying: “We’ll be one year soon, expect an anniversary gift”. They’ve already published the details of my credit card, a password, an old email address. They entered one of my profiles on a website and changed the name to “Cristina Irrera Wh*re”. They are very skilled with computers, it’s scary».
How has her daily life changed?
«I’ve had to leave jobs. In Milan, I worked as a content creator for venues, putting my face in videos. I had to quit because, through Google image search, they can quickly find where I appear and attack those pages. These comments penalize the algorithm: Instagram interprets them as purchased comments and penalizes the profile, even though it’s not me doing it. Now I’m trying to start my own business, but I’m being threatened there too. This doesn’t just affect me, it affects my family too: the number of my sister, my boyfriend, my friends. Under my partner’s posts, they write that he’s a pedophile, that he’s hitting on thirteen-year-olds. It’s pure malice».
Last updated: Tuesday, February 10, 2026, 05:00 © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
