Learn French: Beaucoup de gens utilisent l'anonymat pour dénigrer autrui publiquement. - A lot of people use anonymity to publicly denigrate others.

Autrui is an invariable pronoun meaning "other people" in a broad, general sense. It's more formal and abstract than les autres (the others), making it perfect for sweeping statements about society, ethics, or human behavior like this one.

I usually see autrui after a preposition. Is it normal to use it as a direct object here in dénigrer autrui?

Yes! While autrui is most frequently used after prepositions (like le respect d'autrui or penser à autrui), it can absolutely function as a direct object, as it does here. Keep in mind, however, that autrui can never be the subject of a sentence.

As a refresher, why is it beaucoup de gens and not beaucoup des gens?

Adverbs of quantity like beaucoup, trop, and assez are followed by a simple de (or d') when talking about things in general. You would only use des (which is a contraction of de + les) if you were talking about a specific, defined group, like "a lot of the people in this room."

Could the adverb publiquement go immediately after dénigrer instead of at the end of the sentence?