The blue light of my phone had seared a migraine into my head, yet I could not take my eyes away from the 5-second dopamine hits. It was 3 a.m. and my eyes grew heavy pulling me closer to sleep. As I mindlessly scrolled through Instagram reels with my eyes half mast, one video brought me back to consciousness. I was greeted with a blurred out screen and an eye logo denoting gory content. Without thinking twice, I clicked “view reel.” The video was blurry at first but soon came into painful high-definition. It was a young man, probably in his early 20s, with a black bag over his head, and jumper cables attached to his nipples and genitals. He was screaming in agony and begging to God and his mother. Off-screen a man speaking non-English is screaming at him. Finally, the man off-screen activates the jumper cables and the boy on screen fries.
I was left in disbelief. I had seen shocking reels before but none of them were execution style, had this high production value, or were set in a western nation. I clicked on the profile and viewed more of the videos. More of the same. Mostly young American men meeting Saw-like demises at the hands of some Eastern European sounding man.
The account didn’t have any followers and had only 9 accounts in their following. Most videos only had single-digit views. The profile had the username @öldürücü_darbe.
The most shocking video was of a man being burned alive in front of his screaming children. There was a follow up video which was pitch black with chainsaw noises and the faint screams of the children in the previous video. Left in horror, I sent the account to my best friend. He laughed it off, and said it was most likely some marketing ploy for a new Saw or Hostel sequel.
After scrolling through all the content restricted videos, I finally clicked on the pinned video at the top. This video did not have any warnings, so I assumed it was not a gore video like the rest. The 10-second clip began with darkness, then transitioned to a masked mutilated face, after that was a quick clip of darkness once more, and the final four seconds were a blurry clip of a bloodied note reading, “You reveled in the spectacle, now become it.”
After concluding all the videos on the channel, I put my phone away and managed to force myself asleep.
2 days went by and nothing out of the ordinary occurred. The videos stuck with me, but I have been so desensitized to gore and violence they didn’t make too bad of an impression. Around 1:30 am as I laid in bed doing my usual social media scroll. I noticed 136 dm requests from a non-follower. I opened the requests, it was @öldürücü_darbe.
All of the messages were some variant of “hello” “hello?” “Hello!” “HELLO.” Upon opening the dm he immediately sent a new message, “I see you view my message?” I did not respond. He followed up, “You view my video?” “Did you enjoy?” Once again I did not respond. He replied once more, “Why ignore me 🥲?” I immediately blocked the account. Five minutes after blocking the account, I received a text. It was a picture of my house. I felt nothing but pins and needles beneath my skin, and my blood ran thick and chilled. “Talk now?” He followed up. “I’m calling the police.” I texted. “Jajajaja no police, just say hi 👋😄.” I began dialing 911 while peeking out my second floor window at the car. “Phone off ear or I get whole family involved in our play date 😝🤪.” I put my phone down but left it on the floor, the dispatcher picked up, I muttered my address, and hung up with my foot. “Out in 30 sec or I come in? Make me welcome?” I quickly responded, “No, I will come to you. Let me put shoes on so my family is not suspicious.” He gleefully responded, “Yes, that is best! see soon 😚😊”
As I slithered down the stairs, I heard sirens from afar. The car skidded away and I finally breathed for the first time in 30 minutes. I talked to the police and they assured me they’d look into the matter, and provide any necessary resources. If they were to find the threat legitimate, they would contact higher authorities to relocate me and my family. After a week of waiting, the police told us there was a viable threat and we needed to relocate. We changed our address, phone numbers, and I even changed my name. I banned my children from social media and my wife and I scrubbed our smart phones.
One month after relocation, I received an email from a work associate. It began like any regular work rundown but wasn’t relevant to anything we were working on. Finally the final paragraph stated, “You block my number 😢 So I got creative 🤯 It is sad you didn’t play with me. Lucky I found a new playmate 🥳.” Attached to the email was an mp4 file. Upon clicking it I saw my friend who I shared the account with chained to a chair with his mouth and eyes sewn shut.
I slammed my computer shut and felt my body tense as I was traumatized in real time. Before I could process what I saw I received a text message, “Nahum 3:6 - I will pelt you with filth, I will treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle… They shall revel in you, my friend .See soon 😁👍”