Responding to haters and critics on social media is very much a thing of the past. After countless scandals and legal issues, important people with responsibilities have stopped getting involved in such messes… except for the CEO of HBO, who seems to enjoy getting into controversies.
The CEO of HBO, Casey Bloys, allegedly ordered his employees to use fake accounts on social media to troll and attack critics online, as reported by Rolling Stone.
The publication claims that Bloys became upset over a television critic’s post about the brilliant series “Perry Mason” and approached another high-ranking employee, Kathleen McCaffrey, to suggest that another user respond in protest to the criticisms.
“Do you have a secret account? Couldn’t we say, especially considering that it’s D-Day, that disparaging a soldier’s experience like that seems quite disrespectful?” Bloys reportedly said to the employee, according to the magazine.
A former employee has exposed everything with a lawsuit
The CEO also said that they needed to have secondary accounts on Twitter to “make the point clear and make the critic feel bad.”
The messages, along with other instances of this alleged behavior, stem from a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by a former HBO employee, Sully Temori, against HBO, the company’s head of drama, The Weeknd, and others.
The lawsuit alleges that Temori was asked to create fake social media accounts to respond to critics, in addition to facing harassment and retaliation while employed as a temporary worker and executive assistant.
Temori worked on “The Idol,” The Weeknd’s drama criticized by the critics, in August 2021. McCaffrey allegedly approached Temori to create the fake accounts in 2020 and said that the CEO was obsessed with Twitter and always looking for a fight.
“One of the alleged fake accounts said in response to a Rolling Stone TV review, ‘Alan failed on Succession and fails completely here because he’s busy pointing out virtues.'”
Bloys also monitored comments on Deadline articles about HBO and used anonymous accounts to respond to negative posts about the programming and his tenure as CEO.
HBO has denied Temori’s accusations. But the damage is done. This practice is not uncommon, and many celebrities and prominent figures have engaged in it since the rise of social media.
