It was the Halloween costume seen ‘round the world: A Michigan woman named Alicia Ann Lynch dressed as a victim of April's Boston Marathon bombing, sporting runner’s clothing and fake splattered blood. And as a result, she ignited the rage of the Internet.
But the backlash didn’t stop there. When some discovered that Lynch had once posted a photo of her driver’s license online, they used her home address and other personal information to assist with further attacks. One user tweeted that he sent Lynch a vile package, others found racy photos of her online and circulated them, and some even tracked down her parents’ contact information and sent them death threats.
Lynch posted to Tumblr that since the onset of the threats, her social media accounts have been deactivated and she told BuzzFeed on Sunday that she had lost her job as a result of the photo. The incident triggered a global discussion about basic judgment on social media and whether cyberbullying (in response to Lynch’s costume choice) was justified. Lynch also said, "I’ve had voicemails where they want to slit my throat and they want to hang me and tear off my face. I’m just like, I don’t even know how to respond to this right now" and "Honestly, it’s the Day of the Dead. I wasn’t a dead person, I wasn’t being disrespectful. I was a survivor of a marathon. And it’s not like I was walking around with a fake leg or my arm torn off or something like that.” She said that she wasn’t concerned about the possibility of prospective employers learning about the incident. “I have nothing to hide. It happened, I made a mistake. I just have to learn from it. I’m not a terrible person,” she said.
