What's 4chan Going to Do to Rebecca Black?
Rebecca Black, star of the hugely popular and terrible "Friday" viral video, complained to The Daily Beast today about the mean things people are saying about her on the Internet: "Those hurtful comments really shocked me," she said. "At times, it feels like I'm being cyberbullied." And this was before 4chan launched "Operation Black Friday."
13-year-old Rebecca Black is appearing on Good Morning America tomorrow (Friday!), marking the culmination of what could be called Friday Week on the Internet. The video's been just as huge on 4chan's notorious /b/ board, and users are now buzzing about how to respond to Black's appearance. A former student at Black's Orange County middle school posted the contact information for the school tonight, along with a copy of its calendar and a map of the campus. Others have started "doxing" Black—that is, digging up her and her parents' contact and social networking information. They've already come up with a half-dozen potential home addresses.
So what's going to happen tomorrow? A proposal for "Operation Black Friday" circulating the board goes like this:
here are some simple orders. 12pm est, start calling the school with all of the numbers and tardy bullshit, fax as many nudes of ANYTHING (girl blowing horse for example) and put rebecca's name on it. at 1pm est DDoS Ark Music Factory. at 3pm est, start requesting her (sorry excuse for) music on the radio
(Ark Music Factory is the vanity production company that Black's parents paid $2,000 to record "Friday" and make the video, according to the Daily Beast.)
Right now the effectiveness of 4chan "raid" on Rebecca Black is uncertain. Given that her popularity is built largely on the mass scorn of anonymous people on the Internet, 4chan's anti-Black crusade might get lost in a sea of haters. She's already fended off a Twitter assault by angry Beliebers. And, to be fair, some users have expressed concern over how it would look for them to target a middle schooler, perhaps having learned some lessons from the time they harassed 11-year-old viral video star Jessi Slaughter into police protection.
"I fully support the action against Ark Music Factory, though think about how the media could spin targetting a 13yo girl," wrote one 4channer. "They would try to use it to discredit and smear the name of Anonymous, potentially detracting credibility from future efforts." Another possibility: 4chan's founder Moot steps in and shuts down the raid. (He's been cracking down recently.) We'll see.
[Image of Rebecca Black's school calendar via 4chan]