Foreword – (Un)silencing academia part two

In our urgent efforts to address online attacks against academics, gathering, comparing and analyzing detailed case studies and empirical evidence are of fundamental importance. The knowledge produced through such studies enables us to document and understand not only the wide diversity of these attacks but also their overlaps, by providing first-hand, experience-near examples and solid data analyzed by experts in their fields. As demonstrated in the first part of this book, the current geopolitical landscape of anti-scientific mobilizations – targeting long-held scholarly standards of reliable evidence, factual knowledge, research ethics, and the legitimacy of critical academic disciplines – is vast. Moreover, these mobilizations are rapidly escalating as the second Trump administration targets academic research and universities with a vengeance, producing global reverberations. Policies designed to protect equality, diversity, and inclusions (DEI) initiatives are actively dismantled, attacked, or quietly sidelined, thereby exacerbating the already well-documented vulnerabilities of women, LGBTQ+ people, and other minorities in academia. Finally, universally accessible digital technologies and public online platforms enable rapid public sharing and thrive on the affective outrage content amplified by algorithmic patterns.