Inside the right-wing attack machine Twitchy

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:

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."

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Read the full story at Cosmopolitan.