On July 6, 2020, rapper Talib Kweli began a campaign of targeted harassment against twitter user Maya Moody after he misinterpreted her response to a tweet that he was indirectly mentioned in. Kweli’s harassment of Ms. Moody persisted for three weeks via hundreds of tweets directed at her, and his followers participated in said harassment by sending her death threats, posting screenshots of Ms. Moody’s old twitter posts, and even posting her personal information (i.e. full name, home address, family information, etc.). Kweli has a history of repeated harassment of Twitter users who appear to question him or disagree with him, particularly black women, and he has attempted to portray said harassment as “self-defense” against people who “lie about him and his family.” 

      As a result of Twitter permanently banning him from its platform for said harassment, he has taken this harassment to Instagram and continues to post about Ms. Moody - a woman who is the same age as Kweli’s son - and respond to comments about his harassment of her as of today (August 10th). He has also started to target journalist Ashley Reese for her article about this incident. We are calling on Instagram to set a standard of user conduct by banning Talib Kweli from its platform and thus banning the repeated harassment of Maya Moody and other Black women. Instagram users must know that this conduct and behavior is unacceptable on all fronts.