In recent days, there has been a lot of discourse about an alleged incident involving queer singer Chappell Roan. A new report, however, has found that Roan was the target of an online bot campaign.

It all started on Saturday, March 21, after football player Jorginho shared a post online accusing a member of Chappell Roan’s security team of leaving his 11-year-old stepdaughter in tears. The following day, Catherine Harding, the player’s wife, also posted a video addressing the incident, claiming that Roan is responsible for the people who work for her and act on her behalf.

The posts sparked heavy backlash against the singer, who addressed her side of the story with a video on Instagram, expressing sympathy for the mother and daughter and stating that she had no idea anyone had been approached by security.

Additionally, Rio de Janeiro’s mayor, Eduardo Cavaliere, said that he would ban Roan from performing at the Todo Mundo no Rio festival.

More recently, the security guard involved in the incident, identified as celebrity bodyguard Pascal Duvier, issued a statement taking responsibility for the interaction and confirming that he was not working as the singer’s personal security team or management, but was at the hotel on a different job.

While Duvier explained that a series of recent events had led to a “heightened overall security risk”, he claimed that his interaction with the mother was “calm and with good intentions” and conceded that the outcome of the exchange was “regretful”.

According to a new report, however, the online discourse about Roan appears to have been the result of a targeted bot attack.

GUDEA, the research company, analysed over 100,000 posts between March 20 and March 22 and found that more than 23% were likely to be from bots. Their report states, “The incident prompted intense personal attacks on Chappell Roan, calls for boycotts, and significant misinformation”.

The report found that 4.2% of users contributing to the Chappell discourse at this time were very likely to be bots. Moreover, the research shows that over 23% of the posts were also likely generated by bots.

The report states that “The incident prompted intense personal attacks on Chappell Roan, calls for boycotts, and significant misinformation (including satirical/fictional embellishment spreading as fact),”

It goes on with, “Discourse ranged from legitimate fan criticism and debate about celebrity privacy vs. fan treatment, to coordinated attack campaigns and considerable satirical/humorous content that blurred the line with misinformation.”

Other celebrities have weighed in on the backlash, with actor and activist Jameela Jamil posting her support for Roan and her own criticism of the industry.

In her post, Jamil points out the hypocrisy of villainising Roan, while male celebrities often don’t experience the same criticism. Jamil stated, “A woman is only allowed two years at the top before she is dragged into hell and submission.”

 

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