When Jon Ronson discovers a fake account on Twitter bearing his name and picture, posting fatuous updates about imaginary food, he is, naturally, annoyed. Being an investigative journalist, he soon tracks down those responsible – a group of young academics running a dubious experiment – and when they refuse to take down the fake, the real Jon Ronson tweets his outrage. The effects are dramatic. Within minutes, an angry digital mob assembles to demand the fake account be taken down. The real Ronson is rather pleased, that is until the first death threats arrive, and he realises he’s created a monster. What follows is in an investigation into public shaming, an old pastime given new life by the anonymity and apparent mob rule of the internet. Ronson travels around the world to meet victims of public shaming, people who have lost jobs, been threatened with grizzly deaths, or had lives ruined by small mistakes now preserved forever in cyberspace. So, is this resurgence of public shaming merely a result of the internet, and the hysteria of social media? Or is shame a much wider and older issue? The answer, as they say on the internet, will surprise you.