Mariah Anderson Cyberbullying Controversy

Overview

Mariah Anderson Cyberbullying Controversy refers to the online backlash surrounding a series of insensitive tweets poking fun at a photograph of a two-year-old baby born with Chromosome Two Duplication Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder. The tweets became a subject of national controversy after the baby's mother, Kyra Pringle, spoke out against the harassment of her daughter in late February 2015.

Background

On October 22nd, 2013, a GoFundMe^[1] page was created by South Carolina resident Kyra Pringle to raise money for her daughter suffering from complications due to the genetic disorder Chromosome Two Duplication Syndrome.

In February 2015, Pringle posted a photograph of her daughter Mariah Anderson on Facebook (shown below).^[9]

Notable Developments

Online Reaction

That month, Instagram^[3] user young.yayo highlighted the photograph of Mariah. The post was subsequently deleted. On February 22nd, Twitter user @ArroqantTae^[2] tweeted a screenshot of the Instagram post with the joke "This baby soooo ancient. Mf came out the womb 50 & paying a mortgage," receiving more than 220 retweets and 90 favorites within two weeks (shown below). In the coming days, several other Twitter users poked fun at the photo, including @___daisha,^[4] @Shawndizzle1122,^[5] @aira_alday^[6] and @ShutYoDumbAssUp.^[7]

News Media Coverage

On February 28th, Pringle was interviewed in a segment on the South Carolina news station WCBD News 2, in which she expressed her dismay with those who insulted her child on the Internet (shown below). In the coming days, several other news sites published articles about the online trolling controversy, including BuzzFeed,^[9] The Root,^[10] NY Daily News,^[11] The Daily Mail^[12] and Metro UK.^[13]

Search Interest

Not available.

External References