The Ferguson protests turned some local activists into online stars—the worst kind of celebrity, the kind that gives you notoriety but no protection. One of my friends, Bassem Masri, was a Palestinian-American livestreamer who achieved brief national fame for his passionate speeches denouncing police brutality and racism. Bassem was a sweet and generous person, a friend who checked in on my family when we fell on hard economic times. In November 2018, Bassem died of a heart attack at age thirty-one, and he too became the subject of online news stories full of conspiracy theories and vitriol.
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