Ruminations

Blog dedicated primarily to randomly selected news items; comments reflecting personal perceptions

Thursday, January 31, 2013

#Boobs4Bieber is the worst Justin Bieber-and-boobs-related thing on the Internet this week

National Post Staff | Jan 31, 2013 1:08 PM ET | Last Updated: Jan 31, 2013 2:13 PM ET
More from National Post Staff
Underage Justin Bieber fans are being pranked into posing topless on Twitter.
Ben Rose/Getty Images    Underage Justin Bieber fans are being pranked into posing topless on Twitter.
 
Canadian singing sensation Justin Bieber has made headlines twice this week (here, at least) for groping/maybe not groping teenage fan Jocelyn’s right breast at a Miami meet-and-greet. But those foibles were very innocent indeed compared to 4chan’s latest prank, the hashtag #Boobs4Bieber, which encourages Bieber fans to expose their breasts on Twitter … er, for Bieber.

The prank originated on 4chan’s notorious /b/ message board, with users doctoring images of underage girls to make them appear topless then tweeting them out in an attempt to get other Bieber fans to send out similar photos of themselves — or, more specifically, underage Bieber fans, who seem to be 4chan’s specific target, according to screengrabs posted on the Daily Dot.

Horrifying though the prank’s origins — and intent – may be, it has thankfully failed to pick up, with /b/ users lamenting its failure and encouraging users to create fake Twitter accounts to get the tag trending. But it hasn’t been without its successes — a search of the tag on Twitter does uncover several topless images, though it’s impossible to know how many of those are dummy accounts created by 4chan. It’s also impossible to know how many are actual images of underage girls, so in the interest of good taste (not to mention legality), we — like Wired, who has also reported the prank — won’t be linking out to them here.

Some Twitter users are suggesting that Bieber will be donating money to breast cancer research for every topless photo posted, which could be 4chan users desperately trying to get the prank to go viral.
4chan played a similar and no less nefarious prank on Bieber fans earlier this month, using the hashtag #Cutting4Bieber to convince fans of the pop star to commit acts of self-harm to convince the Boyfriend singer to stop smoking marijuana. Previously, the site had pushed #Bald4Bieber, which encouraged fans to shave their heads following a fake report that Bieber had cancer. 4chan users are pointing to these previous two pranks as a possible reason why the #Boobs4Bieber tag hasn’t taken off — it was easy to spot as a phony.

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