This unusual situation meant that while internet sleuths worked to uncover as much information about him as possible, platforms like YouTube and instagram They were working to close their accounts. X initially closed Maglione’s account, but after CEO Elon Musk said he was “looking at him“the account was restored
Google was also Forced to remove McDonald’s reviews. where Mangione was identified on Monday, after Mangione’s supporters bombarded him with negative comments and one-star reviews.
Before his identity was revealed on Monday, his online followers, primarily on TikTok, Bluesky and X, had created an entire fictional version of the shooter as a left-wing revolutionary hero defending the millions of Americans whose lives have been ruined. negatively impacted by interactions with the health system.
Videos glorifying the murderer flooded TikTok, while one person decided to get it a tattoo of the alleged shooter’s face. In Washington Square Park in New York City, an imitation competition was held on Saturday.
In fact, “Deny, defend, depose,” which is widely seen as a scathing critique of the health insurance industry in the United States, has become an online rallying cry in recent days as attention shifts away from of the shooting itself and focuses on the shooter and his motives.
However, the fictional version of the shooter that was created online does not correspond to reality. Mangione, who allegedly had in his possession a handwritten manifesto admitting to the murder when he was arrested, is a software engineer from a privileged background. He also follows popular right-wing influencers such as Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, and Jordan Peterson, although he has also criticized some of the arguments presented by these figures.
During a brief court appearance Monday night, police did not describe a motive for the shooting, but based on Mangione’s online posts and reading lists, it appears that the pain of an injury suffered while you browse could have played an important role in their motivation.
Even though Mangione does not fit the idealized hero that many online created in the time between the shooting and his arrest, fans of the alleged shooter have continued to post fan fiction about him.
On Archive of Our Own, a fan fiction repository, a half-dozen prose pieces about Mangione were published in the hours after he was identified. In a piece titled “Dispersed Camping Designated by McGuire Road,” an author with the username basedIdiot imagines Mangione and another man on a road trip trying to escape New York. “‘Oh, am I not your beloved?’ “Luigi Mangione mockingly fainted in the other man’s arms,” the author wrote.