Like many other teenagers her age, Bianca Devins lived her life online.<\/p>\n
The 17-year-old had recently graduated from high school and was looking forward to starting a psychology course at a community col"},"modified":"2019-07-21T20:18:28","modified_gmt":"2019-07-21T20:18:28","slug":"the-teenager-whose-murder-was-exploited-for-clicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/07\/21\/the-teenager-whose-murder-was-exploited-for-clicks\/","title":{"rendered":"The teenager whose murder was exploited for clicks"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
Like many other teenagers her age, Bianca Devins lived her life online.<\/p>\n
The 17-year-old had recently graduated from high school and was looking forward to starting a psychology course at a community college later this year.<\/p>\n
As last Saturday approached, she wrote on a gaming platform about how excited she was to be travelling the 250 miles from upstate New York to a concert in Queens. But before she could return home on Sunday morning, Bianca was dead.<\/p>\n
The exact relationship she\u2019d had with the man accused of killing her remains unclear. But in the hours after his arrest, it emerged he had shared graphic photographs of the murder online.<\/p>\n
In the days since, her story has spread across the world \u2013 as have the violent images of her death.<\/p>\n
Her murder, which played out so publicly, is the latest case to place scrutiny on how social media companies police extreme content. Here, we detail how Bianca\u2019s murder was shared and exploited online in the hours and days after her death.<\/p>\n
Brandon Andrew Clark posed that question, taken from a rock song, to his Instagram followers in a temporary 24-hour story posted before dawn last Sunday.<\/p>\n
The next image he shared was far more disturbing. A blurry photograph captioned \u201cI\u2019m sorry Bianca\u201d appeared to show a woman\u2019s bloodied torso.<\/p>\n
Before then his Instagram account, which we have chosen not to name, was mostly used to catalogue selfies and posts about music and art. Police believe the 21-year-old met Bianca through the platform two months earlier and their relationship had progressed in person since.<\/p>\n On Saturday, he drove Bianca to New York City from Utica, where she lived, to see Canadian singer Nicole Dollanganger perform. Police said they believed the pair had got into an argument on the way back, possibly about her kissing someone else, and he had fatally attacked her with a knife.<\/p>\n Police said the suspect shared an even more graphic photograph of Bianca\u2019s body on Discord \u2013 a popular messaging platform for gamers. This image showed the extent of injuries to Bianca\u2019s throat and made clear her wounds had been fatal.<\/p>\n Screenshots from the now-deleted private chat on Discord, apparently used by friends of Bianca, show he shared the image at about 06:00.<\/p>\n As concerned friends scrambled to work out if the photo was real, the suspect continued to post offensive content in the group. Members then took screengrabs of the messages and of his Snapchat account and raised the alarm.<\/p>\n By 07:20, Utica Police had received \u201cnumerous\u201d calls, including some from other US states, about the disturbing posts. Police said the suspect had also called 911 himself and made \u201cincriminating statements\u201d about his actions.<\/p>\n When an officer tracked him down to a wooded area at the end of a residential road, he stabbed himself in the neck. He then lay down on top of a tarpaulin, which police said he had placed over Bianca\u2019s body, all the while taking and posting more photographs online.<\/p>\n After a brief struggle, the suspect was arrested and taken to hospital. A day later, after emergency surgery, he was charged with Bianca\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n How news of the murder spread<\/p>\n Instagram has not confirmed when it received the first reports about the violent image on his public story. But as Sunday rolled on, word was beginning to spread beyond Bianca\u2019s social group, much of it clouded by misinformation.<\/p>\n By Sunday evening, users on Twitter had started to talk about and re-share the Instagram posts. Other users implored people to avoid watching his story and report the account.<\/p>\n From the outset, users said their reporting attempts were being rejected for not violating Instagram\u2019s terms. When approached by the BBC, Instagram did not say how long the original posts on the suspect\u2019s story had been allowed to stay up, but screenshots suggest they had been publicly available for more than 20 hours.<\/p>\n Dr James Densley, a professor of criminal justice in Minnesota, said this kind of public violence carried the risk of secondary trauma for viewers, and also re-victimised Bianca herself.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have this term for people to rest in peace,\u201d he told the BBC. \u201cWell, really, she can\u2019t, because she\u2019s living in this sort of perpetual infamy online every time her image is shared.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of the first people to discuss the murder were users on website 4chan \u2013 a barely moderated internet messageboard where users can post anonymously. Both it, and the even more extreme website 8chan, have become notorious in recent years for the increasingly radical rhetoric posted by some users and their links to a number of deadly attacks.<\/p>\n Before 51 people were shot dead in two Christchurch mosques in March, a manifesto in the suspected gunman\u2019s name was posted to 8chan. He also live-streamed the shooting on Facebook, telling viewers at the start of the attack to \u201cSubscribe to PewDiePie\u201d. This ironic meme, about a popular YouTuber, also appears to have been used by the Utica suspect after he posted images of Bianca\u2019s murder to Discord.<\/p>\n This and other comments attributed to the Utica suspect during the attack echoed the language being used in these extreme online communities, Robert Evans, an investigative journalist who specialises in radicalisation online, told the BBC.<\/p>\n Both the suspect and Bianca are said to have used 4chan themselves in the past. Users on the forum on Sunday celebrated \u201canother 4chan murder\u201d and discussed her death in offensive and misogynistic terms, victim-blaming and even photoshopping the graphic images of her into sadistic memes.<\/p>\n Evans said violent images and language like this were \u201cextremely common\u201d on these platforms. He compared the way that some young men were being radicalised on these websites to how terror groups recruit.<\/p>\n \u201cAll you have to do is shotgun out propaganda in the hopes that a couple of times a year, one individual will have enough commitment and hate in their heart to do something,\u201d he told the BBC.<\/p>\n He believes law-enforcement need to take radicalisation on these websites more seriously. \u201cI don\u2019t think IS would get away with proliferating in a place like 8chan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut at the same time \u2013 the internet is what is. And I don\u2019t know how you could police every dark little corner of it. This is a very 21st Century problem \u2013 and it\u2019s not one with a roadmap to solve it.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Densley said these websites have become a place where otherwise \u201clost souls\u201d are able to congregate.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are views that in polite society would be massively offensive,\u201d he told the BBC. \u201cI think because it\u2019s an echo chamber, these individuals talk up and amp up one another.\u201d<\/p>\n By Monday, when the police confirmed the images of Bianca were real, the case had already spilled from the fringes of the internet into mainstream social media. For hours #RIPBianca even trended on Twitter in the US.<\/p>\n As the story proliferated, some people inevitably tried to search for the accounts and images being mentioned on their newsfeeds. With this attention, the number of Bianca\u2019s Instagram followers started to snowball.<\/p>\n The teenager had been a heavy internet user, but some news outlets drastically overstated the scale of her following. Sensationalist headlines described the murder of an \u201cInstagram influencer\u201d or used the often derogatory and misogynist term \u201ce-girl\u201d to describe her.<\/p>\n In reality Bianca had only about 2,000 followers on her main Instagram account before the news of her killing went viral, according to tracking website SocialBlade. But in the week since, that number has increased to more than 160,000.<\/p>\n The suspect\u2019s account also attracted attraction. Despite his profile being edited to reflect his suicidal intentions at some point during the attack, Instagram did not deactivate it until the police confirmed his identity on Monday, more than a day after the murder. By that time, his following had grown by thousands and his profile was inundated with comments.<\/p>\n Some people capitalised on Bianca\u2019s murder, which had already played out so publicly, as an opportunity to gain followers. Comments like: \u201cFOLLOW ME!!!& DM !! me for full video and picture\u201d were spammed on the suspect\u2019s posts. Dozens of users promised the images of her body were hidden within their private pages. Others tried to trick people into seeing cruel memes or even products they were trying to sell.<\/p>\n Some even went as far as to change their username, or create brand-new accounts, to mimic the suspect\u2019s handle and lure people searching for the photographs.<\/p>\n One person behind one of these accounts, when challenged in a message about their motivations, said they had changed their name out of curiosity but did \u201cfeel a little guilty\u201d for the victim and her family. They initially vowed to stop, but about an hour after abandoning the handle, reverted to it.<\/p>\n Another person emulating the suspect\u2019s username told the BBC they did so \u201cfor social media clout\u201d, adding: \u201cPeople will do anything that gains them followers and some popularity.\u201d<\/p>\n On Tuesday, that user claimed to have amassed more than 1,000 follower requests and about 100 messages. They even considered trying to solicit online payments for the images, they said.<\/p>\n Instagram told the BBC it is reviewing hashtags and accounts where people were claiming to share the graphic content. At the time of publication, most of these appeared to have been removed.<\/p>\n The problem social media companies face<\/strong><\/p>\n Dr Densley said cases like Bianca\u2019s exposed the \u201cweird incentive structures\u201d that exist across the social media we use every day.<\/p>\n \u201cThe entire enterprise is built on the number of likes and retweets and friends and followers that you can accumulate,\u201d he said, explaining that people who perpetrate violence online see the value in the online infamy it can bring.<\/p>\n He said those who viewed the violent images then faced a choice: \u201cDo I report it? Do I ignore it and pretend I didn\u2019t see it? Or do I capture it in my own way, and then share it myself?\u201d<\/p>\n The proliferation of images from Bianca\u2019s murder has renewed scrutiny of the way social media is policed day-to-day, just four months after platforms publicly struggled to contain the spread of graphic video from the Christchurch attacks.<\/p>\n Sites like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook do have human moderators \u2013 but also rely on artificial intelligence technology and user reports to support their systems. The scale of their membership, which in Instagram\u2019s case is one billion users a month, makes for an overwhelming challenge.<\/p>\n \u201cThey use a technique called hashing \u2013 which very basically creates a digital fingerprint of an image or video,\u201d BBC technology reporter Zoe Kleinman explains. \u201cThis means anything bearing that fingerprint can be automatically flagged and removed, or even blocked at the point of upload.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut, it only works if the original material is copied in its entirety. If an image or video is edited or clipped, the \u201cfingerprint\u201d is no longer complete and it can be more difficult to identify.\u201d<\/p>\n Bianca\u2019s case, after that of Christchurch, will do little to alleviate mounting pressure on social platforms from international governments. The UK and Australia have announced new measures where social media companies may face fines, or even criminal charges, if they fail to moderate adequately.<\/p>\n So far this year, Facebook executives have already introduced new restrictions on their live-streaming tool. Instagram also launched new anti-bullying initiatives and a crackdown against self-harm content after the suicide of a British teenager.<\/p>\n Social media companies have reiterated their commitment to their community guidelines since Bianca\u2019s death. Despite this, some graphic content is still slipping through the net. At the time of publication, the BBC found even the most graphic photographs of Bianca\u2019s body \u2013 posted up to a week ago \u2013 still on Twitter.<\/p>\n How the internet fought back<\/strong><\/p>\n The day after her murder, Bianca\u2019s stepmother condemned those sharing the graphic images as \u201cdisgusting\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI will FOREVER have those images in my mind when I think of her. When I close my eyes, those images haunt me,\u201d she posted on Facebook, urging people to consider the feelings of the family and report offensive content.<\/p>\n Many have done so. And many have gone even further, demonstrating how online communities can act as a force for good.<\/p>\n An online spamming war has been launched against those trying to exploit Bianca\u2019s death. Accounts have sprung up to flood tags being used to share graphic photographs and cruel memes of the teenager.<\/p>\n Instead, tens of thousands of pastel-coloured cloudscapes, flowers, hearts and photographs of cute animals \u2013 in the style of Bianca\u2019s own selfies \u2013 now fill her tagged posts.<\/p>\n Most accounts appear to be run by girls of a similar age to Bianca, who appear to be spending hours on the effort. Often the accounts come with offers of emotional support to others and guidance on how to report upsetting content.<\/p>\n One teenage girl, called Taylor, has shared almost 1,000 \u201cfiller\u201d images on the account she set up. \u201cSeeing the images plastered online broke my heart,\u201d she said in a private message from her account. \u201cI wanted to do whatever I could to protect her and her family.\u201d<\/p>\n A 19-year-old named Brianna is among those who created artwork of Bianca as part of the fight to flush out the graphic posts. \u201cI\u2019m glad that her family know that amongst the horror, people still care,\u201d she told the BBC.<\/p>\n Naomi, 21, who is running another \u201ccute clean-up\u201d page, agreed: \u201cI just couldn\u2019t let these monsters win.\u201d<\/p>\n Bianca\u2019s mother, Kimberly Devins, is among those from her family who have embraced #PinkForBianca on their own social media accounts.<\/p>\n In a statement released on Wednesday, she said: \u201cMy heart is completely shattered, having lost my best friend. We will always remember her beautiful smile that lit up our lives. Her spirit will strengthen us and live on forever.\u201d<\/p>\n As they prepared for Bianca\u2019s funeral, her family also launched a scholarship fund in her name, in the hope that others can fulfil her dream of helping young people with mental illness.<\/p>\n Kimberly Devins has thanked those who shared support for the family, and implored people to continue spreading the message of \u201clove, not violence\u201d in her daughter\u2019s name.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have provided us much comfort in this unimaginably difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Like many other teenagers her age, Bianca Devins lived her life online. The 17-year-old had recently graduated from high school and was looking forward to starting a psychology course at a community college later this year. As last Saturday approached, she wrote on a gaming platform about how excited she was to be travelling the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":661295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-661294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lifestyle"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Screenshots](\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanamma.com\/2019\/07\/_107943224_censoredimage-1.jpg\")
<\/span>![\"A](\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanamma.com\/2019\/07\/_107959827_c44d5fda-2726-4aff-8349-fe241fb5ef53.jpg\")
Image copyright<\/span>@BEEGTFO<\/span><\/span><\/figure>\n![\"Presentational](\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanamma.com\/2019\/07\/_105914179_blank_white_space-nc.png\")
<\/span><\/figure>\n![\"Cartoon](\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanamma.com\/2019\/07\/_107911976_65302645_2413458452009783_4424168929349859748_n.jpg\")
People have used #RIPBianca to share positivity online after her death \u2013 including artwork<\/span><\/figure>\n<\/span><\/figure>\n![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanamma.com\/2019\/07\/_107933695_d3364285-4557-4d24-a03a-1bdcab9eb329.jpg\")
The numbers of followers on her now-memorialised accounts continue to grow<\/span><\/figure>\n![\"Bianca](\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanamma.com\/2019\/07\/_107933697_8cf16e41-8461-4ed5-99ce-e25f8abdf6de.jpg\")
Bianca\u2019s mother (right) said their family were \u201cdevastated by the loss of our beautiful angel\u201d<\/span><\/figure>\n![\"Bianca](\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanamma.com\/2019\/07\/_107933693_1c42612a-8821-456d-aa62-39caca16d536.jpg\")
The teenager had recently graduated from high school<\/span><\/figure>\n![\"Photographs](\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanamma.com\/2019\/07\/_107911971_dab519c7-09f3-4c35-a6b0-7438ab1206fc.jpg\")
The grassroots campaign vowed to turn Instagram #PinkForBianca<\/span><\/figure>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanamma.com\/2019\/07\/_107943227_devinsvigil-uticao-d.jpg\")
A vigil for Bianca Devins was held in Utica on Monday night<\/span><\/figure>\n