The internet was supposed to bring people closer together, regardless of national borders and social differences. Freely available knowledge was supposed to drive on enlightenment and a decentralised internet structure was supposed to strengthen the autonomy of the individual vis-à-vis the state, economy and the media. The internet has kept many of its promises; it is hard to imagine life without its ease in accessing information and borderless communication, shopping and entertainment. Only recently, social media was praised profusely as a mobilisation platform for the opposition in states in the Arab world, in Iran and in the Ukraine. While the public long followed the inventive and pioneering spirit of the internet economy euphorically, the delusions concerning the content and the manner of functioning of the most popular social platforms could be just as damning. Understanding threatens to turn to hate, freely available knowledge to propaganda and disinformation, decentrality to dominance and monitoring by a few technology giants with their hunger for data. This fourth anthology from the MediaCultures series published by Deutsche Welle and ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) investigates the phenomenon of the online public, caught between propaganda and manipulation, hate and societal division.