Tyler the Creator unleashes fans against feminist activist
A feminist activist is fighting back against an onslaught of death and rape threats online from fans of Tyler the Creator, who alleges he was banned from Australia because of the woman's efforts to keep him out of the country.
Tyler the Creator claimed he was banned from visiting Australia in a Twitter post Monday.
He called out Coralie Alison, the director of operations at Collective Shout, as being responsible for the ban.
Collective Shout is an organization that helps "target corporations, advertisers, marketers and media which objectify women and sexualize girls to sell products and services," according to its website.
The organization has publicly opposed Tyler the Creator, running a years-long campaign to not allow the rapper to visit the country.
The rapper's songs advocate "rape and extreme violence against women, including murder, genital mutilation, stuffing them into car boots, trapping them in his basement, raping their corpses and burying their bodies," Collective Shout wrote in a 2013 blog post asking Australian immigration officials to revoke his visa before a number of planned concerts in the country.
Later that year, the organization released a short video of Tyler the Creator spewing profanities onstage about a female activist he encountered on Twitter.
This year, the organization launched another campaign, urging immigration officials to prevent the rapper from receiving a visa ahead of his planned tour. Tyler the Creator has four upcoming shows in Australia from Sept. 3 to 8, according to his website.
The rapper seems to believe these efforts, which he pegs on Alison, are behind him allegedly being "banned from Australia."
New Zealand blocked Odd Future, Tyler the Creator's former group, from entering the country to tour in 2014.
However, Frontier Touring, which teamed up with the rapper for the Australian leg of his world tour, said in a Facebook post that Australia has not banned his entry. "This is not the case," the company wrote.
"The department for immigration has raised issues with the visa application, but it has not been refused," the company said. The company will update fans who have purchased tickets when more information is available.
Regardless of the ban's veracity, Tyler the Creator's tweet unleashed an angry fan base against Alison.
Her Twitter account filled up with death and rape threats from other users.
Alison and a slew of supporters that stepped in have been flagging the offensive content to Twitter officials.
Twitter Australia seems to be taking reports seriously. Alison says she's been contacted by Twitter's Australia division and told that the company is "escalating" the reports of abusive tweets against her.
Her organization stepped in sharing a statement of solidarity with Alison(WARNING: This link contains graphic content) from End Online Misogyny, which created a Storify showing a five-minute snapshot of Alison's Twitter feed. It's filled with death and rape threats, as well as multiple people encouraging her to commit suicide.
Still, it appears that Alison's resolve hasn't wavered. In between retweeting her supporters and flagging offensive content, she took the time to send out these 69 characters:
Neither the minister nor assistant minister for immigration and border protection had responded to Alison by Tuesday afternoon.
