Chappell Roan and the no-good, very bad algorithm.

It started with a rogue bodyguard.

For those who aren't aware, a few weeks ago, as Chappell Roan was performing in Rio de Janeiro, an incident occurred outside of her influence and control. A bodyguard not affiliated with Roan confronted the 11-year old daughter of a very famous Football player, "reducing her to tears".

The mother took to social media to imply Chappell had sic'd this man on her child, and the Football player, Jorginho, did much of the same. This incident blew so far out of proportion that the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Cavaliere, announced he would ban Roan from future performances in the city.

Reader – Roan did not know any of this was happening.

What spiralled from here was one of the most coordinated and vast online hate campaigns of recent memory. Everyone has their theories – was it her former management company, implicated in the Epstein files, mad that she left? Was it a force, somewhere, mad that she had been outspoken for Palestine and could not publicly endorse Kamala Harris? Was this lesbophobic rage?

Whatever the impetus, a certain pocket of the online community wanted a moment to be vindicated in their hatred of this woman – they had clearly gotten more and more worked up, more and more alienated from the mainstream as Roan rose, and needed a moment of backlash to feel like they were included again. They were so parasocial to make it almost comical – critiquing this lady for deep, personal things they couldn't possibly know, all while referring to her by her Drag name.

This is our modern trend cycle – something becomes popular, it doesn't land with a certain group in the same way, they feel left out of a cultural moment, they take the chance to be vocally against the thing they don't feel included in, they feel included in the not-liking, and balance is restored.

My theory around all of this stems from one simple truth – an algorithm cannot tell the difference between a positive and a negative trigger. Many netizens online who never connected with Chappell as an artist were likely served a lot of Chappell content – either because the algorithm thought they'd want to join in, they had friends who were Chappell fans, or they kept engaging negatively with the material. This is the same rage spiral Facebook abused to help Trump get elected.

We can all reclaim our agency from this system by following two simple internet rules: If you don't like it, leave it; and don't feed the trolls. Specifically on TikTok, I have noticed people's propensity to comment on things they don't like, to try to garner attention from other people who may not like the thing, and to try to shortcut not feeling left out. When I can stomach to read my comments section, these are the ones I often delete – these people know not what forces they manipulate, and how it may soon eat away at their lives.

Jorginho released an "apology" yesterday – more like a confirmation of Chappell's story. There will be no way of putting this latest wave of hatred against Roan back in the bottle – and a whole new group of people will feel a bit more comfortable sending venom her way for their own sense of belonging.

If it's not obvious from my tone, these are the tactics of bullies.