Jason Van Dyke, a Chicago police officer, was charged with first-degree murder Tuesday over the shooting death of black teen Laquan McDonald. That news was enough to inflame the community, but it was quickly followed by dash cam video of the incident, showing Van Dyke shooting McDonald, who was carrying a knife, 16 times.
Demand for the video was so great that many received error messages while attempting to view it. The Daily Beast, however, decided not only to post the video but create an animated GIF of the shooting for its Twitter feed — a move that many found distasteful at best to offensive at worst.
Hacktivist group Anonymous threatened to “destroy” the Daily Beast’s Twitter account if the GIF wasn’t taken down.
https://twitter.com/TheAnonMessages/status/669324247769219073
I can't feel good about a "news" outlet that creates a GIF of someone's son being murdered. Go to hell @dailybeast. Blocked. Signed, A Mom.
— Carol Ott ?️ (@CarolSOtt) November 25, 2015
@HousingWatchMD a GIF of someone being murdered??? That's absolutely reprehensible. Disgusting, @dailybeast.
— Pigtown Princess (@PigtownPrincess) November 25, 2015
The Daily Beast posted a gif of the murder of #LaquanMcDonald. That's how much black lives matter to them. How much life matters to them.
— Mr. Double O (@MrDoubleOU) November 25, 2015
Fucking daily beast is trash for having that young mans execution posted in gif form on their page. I'm so sick. Did not need to see that.
— Molly Blingwald (@hotpinkBALLZSak) November 25, 2015
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Oof, that autoplaying gif Daily Beast tweeted of Laquan McDonald dying in the street feels like a hard editorial decision to defend…
— Liam Stack (@liamstack) November 25, 2015
@BritniDWrites yes, I didn't even see the dailybeast gif until now. It's heartbreaking & sickening. Too much to see repeated over & over
— Don't Shoot! (@Art_LiveOn) November 25, 2015
The @dailybeast made the killing of a 17-year-old kid into an animated gif in case you were wondering how much #BlackLivesMatter in America.
— Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) November 25, 2015
@dailybeast, take down the gif of the death of #LaquanMcDonald. I don't want to see him being killed over and over again.
— andré m. carrington, Ph.D. (@prof_carrington) November 25, 2015
@KellyOB1977 The Daily Beast has the kid's shooting on a continuous gif. Disgusting. Just loops and loops.
— Stephanie ?? (@StephanieA6510) November 25, 2015
I'm just absolutely blown by how The Daily Beast disrespected #LaquanMcDonald with making that video a gif. Absolutely disgusting.
— Mattie James (@themattiejames) November 25, 2015
I know The Daily Beast didn't seriously tweet a gif of this boy getting murdered. What the hell kind of society have we become?!
— BRITTNEY BLAZE (@pinkis4gangstas) November 25, 2015
@thedailybeast Thanks for the snuff GIF, Daily Beast. #disgusting
— Ted Chamberlain (@ted_chamberlain) November 25, 2015
Daily Beast editor-at-large Goldie Taylor has just announced that the magazine is deleting the GIF.
https://twitter.com/goldietaylor/status/669337485349142528
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