As temperatures rise for the summer season, so does the tension in Coronation Street. After settling more into her role on the council, Maria faces the wrath of internet trolls as she is subjected to an online hate campaign and gets more exposure than she bargained for!
Is Maria's council career going to be over before it's even started? Coronation Street Blog was pleased to be invited to chat with Samia Longchambon, who plays Maria, to learn about this latest issue-based and very serious social media storyline!
Hi Samia! It's great to speak with you again. Maria's really involved in her role as Weatherfield councillor. Can you recap on what's been going on?
Since joining the council, it's very much mission green: you sort of see her, initially, going up to people on the street, like Gail, to confront them about their recycling. She has an idea for everyone to have a separate bin to recycle glass bottles. She thinks of a great idea and tries to get everyone on board. The council agree but Maria doesn't realise it will be a lot more work for the binmen, who then go on strike. Nobody gets their bin emptied because of Maria, and the residents are unhappy with her!
What happens next?
Maria's doorstepped about the strike by a local journalist from the gazette. She tries to make her point, about how she going to get everything rectified and thinks she's given a great interview. Later, Kelly shows her an online viral video of the interview that has been mashed up and interspersed with rap music! Maria feels embarrassed and humiliated by this.
What effect does this then have on Maria?
It rocks her confidence - massively. Her heart is in the right place with it all - but it feels like everyone is laughing, and nobody seems to be taking her seriously. She starts snapping at people, becomes paranoid and shouts at Max. We don't know whether he holds a grudge or not yet.
She’s been hiding the first video from Liam (the rap mash-up) as she doesn't want him to see it. She then gets a call to say that Liam's involved in a fight at school, and she goes to pick him up. He tells her the fight was about a video he’s seen of her, but it's not the rap one, which Maria assumed -she’s mortified! The video looks like her - these deep fakes are very realistic. Maria then thinks the residents of Weatherfield, and her neighbours, will see it and think it’s real.
How seriously does she want to take this?
She wants to go to the police, but things take a turn for the worse. She becomes a victim of internet trolling - it gets so bad that she starts receiving death threats! Maria then tells Gary that now is the time to go to the police, as they can't ignore the seriousness of the death threats. She gets concerned about the safety of Liam and Kelly.
Maria gets enough courage to stay with the local council and organises a press conference about the recycle bin issue, even though the threats continue. How does she manage to continue with it, and why does she want to go ahead?
It takes a lot of courage for her to attend the press conference -She is terrified! Gary tells her he won't let anything happen to her, but he can't be with her 24/7. She is scared but concludes that she can't hide away and must stay to fight the fight. Maria remembers the reason she went into it in the first place, which is why she attends the conference and wants to rise above the internet trolling
What happens at the press conference?
Maria tries to stay on the recycling agenda - but she keeps getting asked about the deep fake video! Maria defers answering but then gets heckled and wound up by local council worker Jimmy (binman depot foreman) - whom Gary is standing near. Gary assumes this guy is the troll, so he lunges at him, puts him up against a wall, and narrowly avoids arrest. The press takes pictures of all of this, making a volatile situation worse.
Maria decides to withdraw from council life but is deterred from doing so by an unlikely source?
With everything going off, she thinks it's not worth it, affecting her family life, so she decides to withdraw from the council. However, she talks with Sally, of all people, she's very much #teammaria with it all, convincing Maria to stay on and continue to do something that she’s good at
Thank you, Samia!
Maria’s man-eating reputation has recovered over these past few years. Now a Weatherfield councillor, settling down with her blended family and married to Gary Windass. Will this internet trolling affect her in the longer term?
Keep watching Coronation Street find out!
Maria’s deep fake video nightmare begins in episode 106745 on Monday 27th of June 2022
*Deep-fake (also spelt deepfake) is artificial intelligence used to create convincingly fake images, audio, and video hoaxes via apps and programming.
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