Justin Bieber's fans are making death threats to a TV host who talked this week about covering his DUI arrest from several years ago on social media.
Christina Nicholson tells The Blast that she was posting on her Instagram story about the arrest as part of a marketing video about news gathering. Not long after her social media posts, Nicholson says she started receiving angry, threatening messages from Bieber's fans.
Nicholson says she was trying "to make a point about news happening all the time. Apparently, his fans weren't happy I was bringing it back up."
That is putting things mildly. Beliebers began direct messaging Nicholson, posting about her on their own Instastories and commenting on her other posts calling her a "bitch" and writing things like, "All Beliebers pray for your death."
The photo below was taken from Nicholson's original post and reposted by a Bieber fan who tagged her in the post and wrote: "she should die."
Justin's fans have been known to harass and threaten users on social media in the past and in 2016 they actually turned on Bieber himself, forcing him to delete his account.
Nicholson says she is frustrated that there isn't a better way to report these types of threats to Instagram. She tells us she's clicked the "report" button for each of the messages and sent an email to Instagram but received no response so far.
The threats are continuing despite the fact that her initial Instagram story is disappearing from her feed.
"Do I think these Beliebers are going to kill me? No… not really," she told The Blast. "Do I think there are some mental issues here that could escalate some place, some time? Yes."
In one particularly disturbing message, a fan who goes by @boy_beliebers, wrote "u srsly gonna dead" and included an image of Justin Bieber appearing to point a handgun at the camera.
"In light of the social media use, mental illness, and what we find out AFTER shootings are committed, I think it's important to address these messages," Nicholson said. "People who send messages like these people are not right in the head and clearly cannot deal with emotions in a healthy way. Not to mention, this is illegal and they are using Instagram to do it."
Justin Bieber addressed his former brush with the law just last year on the same medium his fans are using to harass Nicholson. He posted a copy of his mugshots with the hashtag #neveragain.
The Blast reached out to Instagram for comment but has not heard back yet.
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