(He did not respond to requests from BuzzFeed News.) In recent weeks, played detective by checking people’s Facebook location and even Venmo history to place them in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which over the New Year’s Eve period hosted circuit parties - all-night raves with a reputation for drug use and few sexual boundaries - i.e., the opposite of proper social distancing. “A public forum is better because it sparks change, or at least attempts to,” the gay man in his late twenties running the account told reporters Taylor Lorenz and Alex Hawgood. Most of the drama has been cataloged on the Instagram account which has amassed more than 115,000 followers and spawned several smaller imitators. Was just in Miami last week > Rio > LA the following week.” “Hunker Downers, steer clear,” wrote in one Instagram post tagging a shirtless influencer. The accounts highlight the men’s identities, their usernames, and often their job details, sometimes encouraging users to contact the partygoers’ employers. As they social-distance at home, the people behind these anonymous accounts are sharing images to thousands of followers of muscular, mostly white men gathering in Speedos on beaches or dancing shirtless at parties in the US and abroad.
I want is one of several recent so-called COVID vigilante accounts aimed at self-policing the behavior of the gay community during the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s a sense of acting ethically and having a moral compass. “No part of it is anger on my end,” said the man behind a California tech industry worker, who like others in this story asked not to be identified, fearing he would become a social media target himself. For four days, he eschewed sleep to obsessively scroll through social media and sort through hundreds of tips he’s received as part of his secret mission: use Instagram to name and shame other gay men who are partying during the pandemic.