Insurance executive’s murder sparks online praise and hate | Real Time Headlines

Tens of thousands of people expressed support or sympathy on social media for the killing of the UnitedHealthcare executive, which at least one researcher said was a worrying sign of the radicalization of parts of the U.S. population.

“People wonder why we want these executives dead,” wrote Former New York Times and Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz published an article on BlueSky hours after CEO Brian Thompson, 50, was in Manhattan Shot by a man with a silenced pistol. After strong opposition, Lorenz later release“No, that doesn’t mean people should murder them.”

this Internet Infection Research Institute The Rutgers professor discovered thousands of similar posts on X within hours of the murder. The posts were potentially viewed by more than 8.3 million accounts, received 180,000 likes and 24,400 retweets. According to the institute.

“The proliferation of social media posts praising and glorifying the killing of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson is deeply concerning,” said Alex Goldenberg, a senior adviser at the institute and a researcher at Rutgers University.

“We found a number of highly active posts circulating with the names of other healthcare CEOs and others celebrating the shooting,” he said. “Characterizing this event as the beginning of something in a class war rather than brutality The murder was particularly shocking.”

For years, law enforcement officials have warned of an increased risk of political violence from a small group of Americans, primarily right-wingers, who have become radicalized on social media and immersed in conspiracy theories. (Police have not yet released information about the killer’s motive.)

Climate activist Tobita Chow noted that the posts appeared to come primarily from accounts expressing far-left views, but there were also some from far-right accounts. Tobita Chow summarized the views, with posts covering millions of accounts.

“Most of my notifications are a flurry of populist outrage,” he said release. “Checking people’s profile, it’s from across the political spectrum: leftists, rank-and-file Democrats, MAGA, a liberal or two, and a lot of people who are otherwise completely apolitical.”

A theme of many posts about Thompson’s killing is that UnitedHealthcare and other insurance companies are hurting and killing Americans by denying coverage in the name of profit. Many posts raised Announcements from last month Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, which covers consumers in Connecticut, New York and Missouri, said it will no longer pay for anesthesia care if a surgery or procedure exceeds any time limits, regardless of how long the procedure takes. (Anthem BCBS changed policy direction Thursday.)

“And then people wonder why health insurance CEOs are shot … because insurance companies pull this crap,” An X user wrote.

Officially Facebook post Most people reacted to the death of Thompson, the parent company of UnitedHealth Group, with a “laughing” emoji. The post received about 40,000 reactions, 35,000 of which used the “haha” emoji and 2,200 of which used the “sad” emoji.

Some of the top posts on Reddit in the wake of the shooting have been celebratory, from memes congratulating the shooter to popular replies in subreddits like “r/nursing,” which created a mock reporting comment and claimed Denied Thompson care. One response, which received more than 2,400 upvotes, read: “This fatal shooting has been peer reviewed and is considered an uncovered experimental procedure.”

Thompson is a father of two teenagers. Law enforcement officials told NBC News they found the words “deny,” “defend” and “destroy” on shell casings found at the shooting scene. These words seem to echo the title of a 2010 book, “Delayed Denial Defense,” which is subtitled “Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It.” The author declined to comment.

Lorenz served as a technology reporter for The New York Times from 2019 to 2022 and a columnist for The Washington Post from 2022 to earlier this year. also posted A photo of another insurance company CEO with a date of birth and a blank date of death. (The post has since been deleted.) She reposted a post That said: “Hypothetically, starting sending simple emails to other insurance company CEOs saying ‘are you next’ would be considered an actionable threat?”

Lorenz, who now hosts a popular podcast for Vox Media and owns the Substack newsletter, said in an email to NBC News that she was not seeking to justify violence. She pointed out that she Publish later: “I want people to learn the names of all these insurance company CEOs and engage in a very peaceful letter-writing campaign so that they stop brutally murdering thousands of innocent Americans by denying coverage.”

In an email to NBC News, she said she did not intend to suggest that she personally wished the health care executive dead.

“My post you quoted below uses the royal ‘we’ and explains the public sentiment surrounding this incident. People absolutely want healthcare executives dead because these executives are responsible for untold death and suffering. … People have a very legitimate hatred for insurance company CEOs because of the death and suffering they caused, and it’s interesting that you don’t think about that violence.

She added, “By publicly commenting on comments posted by others like Jenny, I am not endorsing these people and their posts. I can’t believe I have to explain to reporters in 2024 that retweeting is not an endorsement.”

One of the most read X posts on the topic comes from climate activist Chow. He said in an interview that he was not condoning the killings but was calling attention to populist anger at the private health insurance system.

“After seeing mainstream news reports on TikTok about the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, I thought political and industry leaders might want to read these comments and think hard,” he wrote in a post that received 137,000 likes. “

One user responded: “We will not show compassion until we have documentation proving the bullet holes were not pre-existing.”

“My view is that there is a huge populist anger about the way private health insurance companies mistreat people, ruin people’s lives, and in the case of health insurance, potentially even allow them to get away with it and do it for profit,” Zhou said. said Mr. “Obviously, I don’t think the solution to this problem is vigilante assassination, but I do think business and political leaders need to take seriously where this sentiment is coming from.”

He said the killing prompted a flood of complaints against UnitedHealthcare.

Many social media users shared Chart from financial website ValuePenguin This shows that UnitedHealthcare has the highest claims denial rate among major insurance companies.

While the shooter’s motive remains unclear, healthcare industry professionals have learned Experienced escalating threatssaid Drew Neckar, principal consultant at security and risk management firm Cosecure.

“Especially in health care, there’s been a significant increase in violence, whether it’s physical violence, threats or otherwise. It’s been an issue for decades, but since the pandemic, there’s been a significant increase in violence,” he said.

Neckar noted that threats are often targeted at frontline providers such as doctors and nurses, but he said he has also noticed an increase in threats against health care executives.

“In the past few years, the health care facilities I’ve worked with have seen an increase of at least 25 to 50 percent in actual violence against staff and threats of violence against staff,” he said.

Shannon Watts, founder of the gun violence prevention group Moms Demand Action, vividly recalls her relatives’ endless, losing battles with UnitedHealthcare to seek coverage for her late stepfather. Died from glioblastoma Early 2000s.

Despite his anguish over the way UnitedHealthcare treated his stepfather, Watts was shocked to read the vitriol directed at the slain executive.

“You know, this is really happening on all platforms. It’s shocking to me to see celebrities, not just bots, defending, condoning, mocking, celebrating gun violence,” she said.

“Two things are probably true: The Medicare system is broken and must be fixed, and gun violence and murder are wrong.”