Pop star Rihanna fueled the growing flames of Twitter the other week when she criticized the pro-anorexia tweets of fame hungry tweeter, Kenneth Tong.
“Girls are dying all over the world because of ignorant individuals like this Kenneth Tong,” tweeted Rihanna in response to a slew of tweets by Tong like “To be thinner, skip dinner. Anorexia is not evil, it is an oft mismanaged blessing.”
Rihanna’s retort quickly sent Tong’s follower list through the roof, gaining 23,000 new followers rushing to see what the fuss was about.
Soon after, Tong revealed that the tweets were all a part of a hoax set up to prove to a friend that anyone could achieve global fame through the internet and Twitter.
“I chose the subject as a hoax as I knew it’d be appalling to men and women,” wrote Tong in a confession post. “The campaign has worked; I have been a trending topic on Twitter for over a week.”
For anyone who’s wondering, the man who’s put on a new spin on the phrase “starving for attention” is against the practice of managed anorexia.
“My honest personal opinion on managed anorexia is [that] it is a disgusting and illogical idea,” he said. “To all the people I have offended as part of this scientific experiment, I would like to apologize.”
Tong also plans to contribute to an eating-disorders charity for penance.
Is it too little too late for apologies? –nicholas robinson
