The Bernie Bros Are A Problem And The Sanders Campaign Is Trying To Stop Them

[wyldwolf]

Bernie Sanders’ campaign is trying to rein in his unruly online men. Live by the Redditors, die by the Redditors.

FAIRFIELD, Iowa — The internet is home to the best of the Bernie Sanders campaign — the grassroots, youth-powered, bottom-up energy of social media fueled Sanders’s challenge to Hillary Clinton.
But the social web has also shown off the worst of Sanders supporters. Writing in her endorsement of Clinton this week, progressive writer Joan Walsh complained of harassment from online supporters of Sanders that the Vermont senator’s campaign aides have been aware of for months. Walsh called them “the Berniebot keyboard warriors,” but they’re more commonly referred to as the Bernie Bros.

In fact, top Sanders campaign aides have quietly reached out to senior officials in the Clinton campaign and women like Walsh personally to apologize for Bro behavior. Online, aides are pushing their digital community to police itself and keep the Bros quiet. And some volunteer members of Sanders’s digital army are scrambling into action, reporting offenders and moderating bro-y posts.
Still, the Bros break through, and there’s real worry in corners of Sanders-world about it.
On Thursday, the BBC catalogued social media attacks on black pundits and women who opine on Bernie. Mashable posted a ton of screenshots of Bro attacks Friday morning.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/evanmcsan/the-bernie-bros#.ruk5d0Mqo