When considering the uses of Twitter, one might suggest connecting people, spreading information and news, or simply expressing emotions in a relatively non-destructive manner. This year, however, introduced a new area of interest that provided equal parts infuriating and satisfying entertainment: amateur sleuthing. Here are five times Twitter detectives took matters into their own hands and called for justice regarding disturbing behavior:
1. Pleasant Grove High School student posts racist video on Snapchat, Twitter responds promptly
In a recent viral video, teenage girl Desirae Fernandez spouts hateful and clearly racists remarks about African American people, going as far to say that, “Black people are trash and they need to die.” She even states her happiness when “the police were killing all those black people“.
This shit getting outa hand……… pic.twitter.com/LLPb3IHer3
— 3/16♓️ (@RealBabyK1) December 24, 2017
But bless Twitter, because within a couple of hours after the video was tweeted, Fernandez’s school contact information and Snapchat handle were dug up, and users did not let her crimes go unnoticed. Emails were sent rapidly to the Elk Grove School District, in CA, so much so that the district was forced to open an official investigation of Fernandez and other students involved.
2. Keaton Jones’ mother is outed as a racist
The sob story viral video of Keaton Jones blew up Twitter in early December, and many who watched were touched by the crying boy as he described being bullied. Jones ended up getting multiple offers from actors and athletes to visit movie premieres and games, and it seemed to be a happily ever after story.
This is Keaton Jones, he lives in Knoxville and he has a little something to say about bullying.https://t.co/coyQxFp33V
— OutKick Bets (@OutKickBets) December 9, 2017
Some Twitter users, however, did a little investigating and uncovered the fact that Jones’ mother actually posted a picture of herself holding a Confederate flag about two years prior. What a plot twist.
3. Trump supporters call a 5 year old girl a terrorist
While attending a pro-Palestine protest in Los Angeles, a five-year-old girl holding a “Dump Trump” poster was called a terrorist by a group of people wearing Trump paraphernalia. The little girl’s cousin posted the video on Twitter, and immediately Twitter detectives got working on identifying the rude people.
https://twitter.com/ryasinn/status/940035114985127937
In a thread of replies that followed the tweet above, users are able to identify the man and women in the video, somehow piece together their license plate, figure out that one of the women is a social worker and contact the school that she attended.
https://twitter.com/ryasinn/status/940329066497900544
Brilliant work.
4. Charlottesville white supremacist rally attendees identified
The white nationalist rally that took place in Charlottesville, VA, earlier this year shook the nation for a long time. It was disturbing to see so many people voice their support for a racist and discriminatory cause so brashly and unapologetically. Moreover, it seemed that law enforcement wasn’t actually going to do anything about the white supremacists that showed up. So, of course, the Twitter amateur detective unit was left to take matters into their own hands.
One of the first men identified was Cole White, who worked a restaurant in Berkeley, CA. At least, he did until the restaurant found out he attended the rally.
https://twitter.com/hshyamsundar/status/896862776949325827?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fnews%2Fthe-intersect%2Fwp%2F2017%2F08%2F14%2Fa-twitter-campaign-is-outing-people-who-marched-with-white-nationalists-in-charlottesville%2F
Then came Peter Cvjetanovic, the dude in this viral picture:
This angry young man is Peter Cvjetanovic, a student at @unevadareno pic.twitter.com/7rLGJkcT3o
— Yes, You're Racist (@YesYoureRacist) August 12, 2017
After he was outed, the school that he works at (University of Nevada) released a statement that disapproved of the rally. There were more men identified, and we can only hope that they won’t think about supporting anything like this again.
5. Kid throws a cat and Twitter gets him arrested
A sick teen posted a video on Snapchat of him throwing a kitten like a football across the street and it disturbed a lot of Twitter users (it’s really graphic so it won’t be included here). Outrage over the blatant animal abuse the video depicted spread, and soon enough, the teen was identified and police were contacted.
We are aware of a video that depicts the abuse of a cat. We thank everyone for contacting our department with the video. It has been determined that the incident took place outside our city and we are working with the appropriate jurisdiction to find the cat and the suspect. pic.twitter.com/7NE2Ty48py
— Fontana PD (@FontanaPD) December 2, 2017
The teen was arrested, and best of all, the kitten survived!
Is it kind of terrifying that so much personal information can be uncovered with just a couple of clicks and some really persistent users? Yes. And there are plenty of stories in which this sort of information was used for malicious purposes. But sometimes, Twitter detectives use this power for good and actually help serve justice for horrible acts. And in times like this, it’s a nice feeling to know that (some) Twitter users have your back.
Picture Credit: Esther Vargas via Flickr
