The entertainment accounts @popcrave and @popbase on twitter are notorious for having extremely problematic replies. Under each tweet is a cesspool of racism, misogyny, homophobia, and more. Furthermore, these replies often cause conflicts between different twitter fandoms who fight for “clout” and views on their fancams and edits. 

This cesspool has several negative effects on Twitter:

• It provides a breeding ground for offensive replies and other hater speech.
• It negatively impacts the culture of stan twitter, prompting (often misogynistic) fighting and conflict between fandoms.
• It harms the mental health of artists, who don’t like to be constantly compared to other artists (Katy Perry commented on this in a recent viral video)

Arguments against turning off replies are weak. 

• “But our fancams!” Fancams and edits can be promoted elsewhere. The plethora of other options includes hit tweets, fandom-specific update accounts, your own tweets, and more!
• “Update accounts get their audience because of their replies!” Update accounts have been proven able to drive engagement in a variety of other ways that don’t require providing a platform for hate speech. For example, both @popcrave and @popbase have had wildly successful polls ranking the “best songs of the year” and various other categories. 

We hope that Twitter, @popcrave, and @popbase take action to mitigate the harmful platform they have created. Doing so will improve the image of not just the update accounts themselves, but all of stan twitter as well.