Report addresses hateful social media accounts

Logging onto Twitter a couple weeks ago, I saw many of my fellow classmates mentioning and tweeting about a new account called LKnudes. The account has since been suspended, but during its short-lived reign, it was significantly harmful to those involved.

During its time on Twitter, the anonymous account asked for direct messages of naked photos from its followers with messages about how attractive the pictures were, along with the notorious wide-eyed heart-eye emojis. The account degraded and shamed those whose pictures were posted, as they were spoken of like pieces of meat.

Along with LKnudes, similar local accounts have sprung up asking users to direct message anything they want to say about a person to be posted anonymously. Most of the time, these tweets are profane and mean.

Just one person saying something against it [can stop the accounts]… Once you take the support away from it then there’s no point in doing it anymore.

— Junior Garrett Swisher

My question is why do people choose to spend their time creating outlets for people to bash others? There are no need for such accounts to be created. Whether it’s fueled from hatred or pure boredom, there’s better things to do with one’s social media use, such as bringing people up with encouragements or compliments—tweets that don’t require anonymity to be posted comfortably.

“I think (people start the accounts) just because of the attention they get,” junior Garrett Swisher said. “I honestly feel like social media nowadays is a place for people to hide, and so when it’s an anonymous Twitter that’s getting all those tweets, it makes the person who runs it feel good because they’re in control of something.”

The accounts are sustained by the people who follow them. Without the followers and without attention, the accounts would quickly peter out.

“Just one person saying something against it [can stop the accounts],” Swisher said. “… Once you take the support away from it then there’s no point in doing it anymore.”