Paris Jackson Speaks out Against Cyberbullying, Defends Justin Bieber
Paris Jackson addressed online bullying in a tearful series of Instagram videos on Wednesday. “I don’t understand how there can be so much hatred in the world right now,” she said. Later she added, “I got so much hatred that I tried to kill myself.”
Jackson appeared understandably frustrated by her inability to escape internet vitriol. “I’ve tried sticking up for myself,” she explained. “I’ve tried the whole blocking the haters thing, not reading the comments … Ignoring it. But it’s hard … when there’s so much of it.” She said that the hostility she experiences online led to her reported suicide attempt in 2013. After that experience, she stayed off social media for two years. When she returned, she found herself in the exact same environment.
“I don’t get why I’m such an easy target,” Jackson continued. “I try to be nice to everyone I meet; I give everyone a chance. I’m usually a very trusting person. I try to be open with you guys about what I do on a daily basis. I share my life with you — I don’t hide a lot.”
Jackson suggested that she wasn’t the only famous person who felt this way. “Fucking Justin Bieber went into a downward spiral because everybody that he dates gets so much hate,” she noted. “I have known his girlfriend, Sofia, since I was like 12 or 13. She’s one of the sweetest girls in the world, and people are telling her to kill herself. I mean, we’re human beings, man. We got hearts and brains and feelings, and when you say damaging things like that to people, it fucks ’em up. It really fucks people up … It’s exhausting.”
She later deleted the Instagram videos and replaced them with a lone picture. “Looks like I’m the villain now,” she wrote in the caption. “Didn’t know defending myself was a crime.”