A few months back, emissaries from infamous Internet troll nest /b/ tried to convince Justin Bieber fans that their idol had cancer and that they should cut their hair in solidarity.
The operation was vaguely successful, so 4chan users decided to up the ante, sticking with Belibers and cutting, but ditching the "hair" part.
Operation Cut For Beiber launched this morning with a hashtag on Twitter that proved so successful, it was trending nationwide within hours.
The alleged impetus for self-mutilation cooked up by the lulz-seekers? Bieber's supposed weed habit.
"You stop using drugs and we'll stop cutting. You make this world meaningless and we've lost hope," tweeted @brittanyscrapma, one of several dummy accounts set up by /b/tards.
The hashtags #cutforbieber and #cuttingforbieber quickly amassed dozens of photos from teens and tweens who claim to have slashed their wrists and forearms over Bieber's drug use, but it remains unclear how many of the photos are authentic, and how many have been seeded by 4chan users.
Regardless, the fact that the hashtags are trending at all is disturbing enough.
[photo via AP]