What had been a piece of salacious on-campus gossip, transmitted via anonymous social media and group texts, was now a national story. X removed the post containing the video, but late the following day, @SteveCumfull posted it again. Then they posted a screenshot of a cryptocurrency token they’d bought with Kowalski’s name on it, with a market cap of $11,400. “Put your children’s college savings into this,” they tweeted. @SteveCumfull could have been anyone: a close friend, a neighbor, a mutual with an axe to grind. Whoever they were, they now appeared to be profiting from the worst moment of Kowalski’s life.

X allowed the same account to repost the video. This user was allowed to profit from the videos.

These campaigns were the work of the burnerverse (or “beev,” or “BV”), a loosely connected network of anonymous “burner” accounts on X, mostly operated by students and alumni, with the primary purpose of discussing college sports.

"Mostly operated by students and alumni" We could start holding those people accountable.

The women targeted by the burnerverse were private citizens before their names, rumors, explicit images, or videos went viral. WIRED has identified 10 women who have been doxed by the burnerverse, most of whom were between the ages of 18 and 21. The virality follows a specific pattern: salacious gossip about a college girl’s sex life, or nude photos and videos of her, make their way to YikYak or Snapchat before being disseminated by burner accounts on public social media platforms. Sometimes, the content has even made national news, with aggregation websites like TheSportsGrail or Barstool Sports employees amplifying the victim’s humiliation.

TheSportsGrail and Barstool Sports could stop amplifying these harassment campaigns.

There’s also evidence that some college sports athletics departments are aware of the burners and even maintain cordial, semi-symbiotic relationships with them, akin to the dynamic between a brand and an influencer account. According to McCarthy’s piece, one prominent MSU burner account alleged that the school invited burners to an event unveiling the football team’s new alternate uniforms. Athletics staffers would even send him photos of meetings with potential recruits: “It was like, ‘Wink, wink, nod, nod, if you want to post these pictures, feel free to do so,’” they said in the report. (A top official at MSU told McCarthy that this was not “part of athletic department strategies.”)

The colleges could stop building symbiotic relationships with these communities.

Many burners are run by school alumni or casual fans, but a non-negligible number of them are associated with fraternities, as evidenced by the photos of Greek events they post or the affiliation in their bios. Blake, who is involved in Greek life at Ole Miss, says it’s an open secret on campus that potential new members are strongly encouraged to create burner accounts in order to pledge. (Ole Miss did not respond to a request for comment.) These are “guys who would buy you a drink, who’d take you out on a date, who are your little brothers or your best friend or your boyfriend,” she says. “It could literally be anybody. It’s not mean or troubled guys doing it, or guys who need validation. It’s guys with wealthy families and support systems and college educations.”

We could stop pushing new members to participate in these harassment communities.

Almost immediately after the video leaked, Kowalski reported the harassment to campus police. They assured her they would launch an investigation, then handed it off to the Gainesville Police Department. She says UF administrators also promised to launch an investigation into how the content spread. According to Kowalski, though, they told her that unless the police filed charges, the administration couldn’t take any action against students.

The police could take these crimes seriously.

In early August, however, I received a text from Kowalski: After nine months, the Gainesville police had charged Gomberg, Ahmed, and Pitfield with sexual cyber-harassment, a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine. Additionally, Ahmed has been charged with a third-degree felony: sexually cyber-harassing for financial gain. Per a sworn complaint from the Gainesville Police Department, Ahmed and Pitfield used university IP addresses to access their burner accounts—an allegation that was maddening to Kowalski, as UF had told her they dropped the Title IX investigation because the video was shot off campus.

Kowalski has also brought civil lawsuits in the Northern District of Florida against all three men, alleging sexual cyber-harassment and asking for financial damages.

We can and should prosecute these predators. It's possible. We need to hold everyone here accountable for assuming that these young women aren't worth protecting.