The SyFy channel has a new show out called The Internet Ruined My Life. One of their first segments involves Suey Park, who started the #CancelColbert hashtag, and then had to go into hiding due to people doxxing her, threatening her, and even stalking her IRL.
Wired has some background on the #CancelColbert fiasco. In March 2014, The Colbert Report aired a segment making fun of the Washington Redskins’ owner starting the Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation to appease those who took issue with the use of “redskins” as a slur. The segment was later referenced on The Colbert Report‘s Twitter account, “I am willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever.”
Park, who was building a following as an outspoken Asian-American activist, took issue with slurs reserved for Asians being used in this way. She tweeted, “The Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals has decided to call for #CancelColbert. Trend it.” People started using the hashtag, and soon the backlash grew.
As the SyFy clip above shows, the blowback Park got included HuffPost Live making fun of her for not understanding satire, the boyfriend who encouraged her to speak out breaking up with her, and then Reddit users doxxing her, to the point where she went into hiding and started using burner phones to communicate with friends.
The scariest parts are when someone claiming to be an ex military sniper said that he was outside her window with a target trained on her. This caused her to flee from Chicago to New York, where her friends cut off her hair so that she could go dancing one night. Unfortunately, a group of people followed her to a club and took pictures of her. When she grabbed a phone to delete them, she found photos of her from previous days.
That’s some truly scary stuff, and it goes to show how far people will go to threaten someone they don’t agree with on the Internet.
(Via Wired)
