EDITORIAL Public Shaming Helps No One Junior Ally Mediratta opened her phone to 12 Instagram direct messages the day after Kobe Bryant died. She had posted to her Instagram story about remembering his rape allegations in the wake of his death, upsetting some of her followers. In her post to her Instagram story she wrote, “no one deserves to die [...] but pretending like his legacy was that of sainthood and strictly amazing basketball achievements overshadows another truth about him, an important one. We can mourn without glorifying.” While many of the messages she received were from acquaintances who hoped to have a conversation with Mediratta, others stood out as aggressive and unrelated attacks on Mediratta’s personality. Over the following days, Mediratta heard of her post being circulated on a student’s private Snapchat story that she was not able to see. One of her peers, she recalled, publicly denounced her in front of a class she was not in. Eventually, Mediratta began receiving rape and death threats from three Instagram accounts with similar usernames. Other social media shamings — characterized by public 11 denunciations, a fl urry of outraged posts, and viral spread of visuals related to the incident — have aff ected the M-A community several times this semester. While most “ Mediratta began recieving rape and death threats from three Instagram accounts with similar usernames. ”
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