Videos featuring violence against trans people are being shared as entertainment, report finds
A new report has found that videos of attacks against transgender people are being uploaded to social media sites for entertainment, according to Fusion.
The report was published on Tuesday (October 25) by the human rights organisation Witness who analysed the ratings and comments of 329 videos posted on sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Vine and even Twitter.
In most of the videos, transgender people are seen being beaten and harassed in public. Around 230,262 comments were made on these videos and Witness reveals that the majority of them were negative about transgender people or celebratory in the attacks.
Trans activist Kylar Broadus star in a video by Witness that discusses some of the terrifying social media comments that were made over the videos.
One comment reads, “If you see a crazy tranny coming at you, don’t fight it, you might catch AIDS. Just shoot it.”
Another comment says, “This is a preview of what will happen to trannies in women’s restrooms. Kill that f*cking tranny.”
Beverly Tillery, the Executive Director of the New York City anti-violence project, said:
“People are regularly hosting [these videos] on all kinds of sites, and that tells us something very different about what’s happening around violence against trans folks than what is out there right now. For many people, these videos in and of themselves are a secondary act of violence.”
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