Inside the right-wing attack machine Twitchy

(Image credit: iStock)

published 20 August 2015

Cyberbullying comes in many forms: While anonymous online message boards like Reddit and 4chan can rile up thousands of users from the darker corners of the web to spew hate in a particular direction, Cosmopolitan columnist Jill Filipovic was hit with a barrage of online harassment from a very specific set of trolls who operate with slightly more legitimacy.

After tweeting "relevant information" about the initial undercover Planned Parenthood video that accused the organization of selling fetal organs — Filipovic said she tweeted to clarify that the group posting the video "was not actually a medical organization but anti-abortion activists posing as medical professionals" — her Twitter was quickly flooded with hateful messages and personal attacks:

Tweet after tweet after tweet streamed in. I was a life-hating bloodthirsty ghoul; a soulless bitch; pro-dead-babies-incinerated-as-biohazardous-trash; a sad, degenerate monster; a f--king heartless beast; a human sewer; the female Hannibal; a soulless wino psychopath; an ignorant twat; a Caitlyn Jenner look-alike; an Obama taint-licker; a dumb, sniveling f--kwhistle; perhaps "some type of transgender"; nasty skank trash; and an elitist snot (that one came with a photo of dozens of dead children), among other pleasantries. [Cosmopolitan]

As it turns out, the hate came from a very particular source: The popular conservative website Twitchy. Founded in 2012 by conservative blogger Michelle Malkin, Twitchy finds content on Twitter to re-post on its site, alongside what Filipovic describes as "often outraged commentary." The site's nearly 2 million readers then channel that rage and direct it at the person behind the tweet, which often turns out to be a liberal or progressive journalist. "Basically what they're trying to do," explained one Twitchy victim, "is destroy you, mentally, physically, and economically."