Linda Cerruti and the attacks of haters on social media: “Complaining is the only thing to do, cyberbullying is violence”

Twelve people. Among them a Roman employee, a Venetian worker, two Lombard retirees, a Friulian civil servant, a thirty-year-old Sardinian. After the offenses, in August, at the bottom of the photo in which he showed, against the background of the sea and with a synchronized swimming pose – his sport – his medals, Linda Ceruti he moved on to the facts: he denounced. The investigations conducted by the experts of the Cybernetic Security Operations Center of Genoa, coordinated by the Public Prosecutor of Savona and with the support of the Rome Postal Police Service, led right into the computers, smartphones and lives of these gentlemen, now accused of defamation via the Internet. Linda, join today #heartsconnectedthe awareness project against the cyberbullying created by Unieuro in collaboration with the State Police which has involved students, parents and teachers every year since 2016, has not given up, has not removed its image from Instagramshe didn’t blame herself – as often happens -.

Linda Cerruti: “Complaining, in these cases, is the only thing to do”

“Reporting sexist comments on social media isn’t easy, but it’s the only thing to do. This affair in the following months took up a lot of my time, of course. You have to keep up with it, follow up on the complaints and you have to feel like it. But it’s important, very important. So that it doesn’t happen again”. Before last August, Linda had never had any trouble on social media. “I’ve been on Facebook since 2009, on Instagram since 2013. My followers have always enjoyed following me and I’ve never been offended before. Something different happened with that photo: many national newspapers took up my post and they spread through their channels. At that point the situation got out of hand. The image ended up in front of the eyes of people who didn’t even know what I was doing, who didn’t even know synchronized swimming. And so on with the insults”.

Linda Cerruti: “Cyberbullying is violence”

Escape from social media, however, has never been an option for Linda. “It would have been like letting them win. Many told me “it’s normal, it’s the price to pay to the social media people”, but it’s not like that, it can’t be like that. It was cyberbullying, it was a form of violence. And as such was to be reported. I was especially sorry to see certain comments approached not so much to me as a person, but to my sport, to sport in general. Sport, which should be a healthy environment, one of good feelings and fair competition, had become for the baser instincts. Unacceptable. The wrong one wasn’t me, but the people who had written those offenses”.

Cerruti: “Many don’t know the Postal Police”

Linda Cerruti participates in #heartsconnected, a national reference platform full of information and educational contents (a dedicated YouTube channel, the site, a series of documentary films and a series of books with the testimonies of girls and boys on the dangers and opportunities of the online universe) and speaks on the occasion of the Safer Internet Day, the world day dedicated to the positive use of the internet. “Being in this project is important to raise awareness among young people and teach them how to react to certain attacks. Many people in recent months, for example, have written to me telling me they didn’t even know of the existence of the Police post and that verbal attacks via social media could be reported. But yes, fortunately”. She found a lot of support within her world, “I have to thank the psychologists who follow our national team” and her family, “who were very close to me in the worst moment and helped me to find the strength to resist and come out of it”.

Linda Cerruti towards the 2024 Paris Olympics

Meanwhile, synchronized swimming has changed around her, starting with the name, “although I prefer the old wording to the new one of artistic swimming”. Men will also be able to participate in the Olympic team competitions (maximum two, out of eight of the team), starting from Paris 2024, “and I couldn’t wait, we will be able to attend even more spectacular races, it’s a wonderful step forward”, and in the meantime the regulations change, “to make our sport more similar, in terms of scores and in the application of a code, to figure skating and diving”. An intense year with European and World Games, before another even more important one, 2024: World Cup, European Championships and Olympics in a few months. “Paris gold is a once in a lifetime opportunity in sport. And I’m sorry for the Russians and Belarusians if they can’t be there. It’s so unfair to stay out just for your passport. Sport should include, embrace all, and do not divide. Never”.