A group of trolls launched a fake campaign on Twitter called Operation Cut For Bieber. The campaign was launched to convince Justin Bieber fans to inflict pain on themselves to convince the pop-star to stop smoking. The operation began trending nationwide on January 7. Twitter user @brittanyscrapma wrote:
You stop using drugs and we’ll stop cutting. You make this world meaningless and we’ve lost hope
Thousands of photos of slit wrists were uploaded to the hastags #cutforbieber and #cuttingforbieber sind the trend began but it “remains unclear how many of the photos are authentic”, writes Gawker.
As The New York Daily News reports, the campaign was launched by a group of anonymous users on the message board website 4chan. In October, a group of website users launched a trend called #Bald4Bieber. The group made people believe Justin Bieber had been diagnosed with cancer and suggested “fans shave their heads” to show him some support.