When the internet was first unleashed on the public, it was initially a place to research information and learn new things. Then, social media allowed us to connect with friends and post cat pictures. But lurking underneath was a sinister force that turned denizens of the internet into…well, trolls. Peter John Ross examines the origins of a particular “troll” in his documentary, Social Media Monster.
Our tale brings us to the reclusive town of St. Joseph, Missouri, with the arrival of filmmaker and journalist Matthew Berdyck. He moved to St. Joseph in hopes of building a community of artists by creating a film and music production studio and, I believe, a steakhouse. Then, “all hell broke loose.”
According to the documentary, Matthew was at the local iHOP, where he witnessed a man assaulting…strangling a woman in the parking lot. Berdyck ran into the restaurant and told the waitress to call the police, which she did.
“…he whipped out his cell phone and confronted a group of men (one wearing a Trump t-shirt) for not helping him…”
The problem was that there was no evidence of an assault except for Berdyck’s word. Being the astute documentarian, he whipped out his cell phone and confronted a group of men (one wearing a Trump t-shirt) for not helping him rescue the alleged woman. The confrontation elevated to the point where accusations of homophobia were made, and Berdyck claimed this confrontation was a hate crime, and the video would be posted online…which it was.
When the police arrived, there was no evidence of a crime, so they left, which led Berdyck to publically escalate the incident. When he approached the local media, they refused to run the story because of a lack of evidence, which led Berdyck to publicly escalate the incident.
The rest of the documentary follows the war being waged between Berdyck and the people of St.Joseph. Anyone who has ever been attacked or engaged with trolls on the internet will immediately connect with this story. The documentary would show that Berdyck would first harass anyone who disagreed with him online with an incessant stream of comments. Then, he would contact his victims’ work, friends, and family and make their lives a living hell.
"…the citizens of St. Josephs were all united in defending one another..."
This is an extremely biased and manipulative review which has numerous factual errors.
First, and most important, no experts appear in this film, no psychologist participated in this movie, and the reviewer has blatantly misrepresented this.
Second, I am the founder of ToxicWasteSites.org, an environmental activist that has been involved in hundreds of scandals around the US, including being the first person to blow the whistle on the Flint Water Crisis, evident from my film Poison in the Grapes, which exposed corruption at the Region 5 EPA, in 2013.
Third, I am a source of military and Pentagon Leaks for New York Times, a working, signed national news videographer for major cable networks and the evidence of all of this was visibly posted on my website at the time of this review.
Fourth, as a person was disabled for most of my life, I have been a strong advocate for personal accountability, not asking for sympathy, and based on the 12 million readers a year, plus millions of television viewers, and robust social media following, I do not need attention and nor was there any attempt to seek attention in St. Joseph.
The citizens of St. Joseph did not “join together.” I was exposing corruption in the city and the film stars a sitting city council person and his political followers, five of them, as only 46 showed up at the film premiere and to this day, no one in the city even knows any of this happened.
I have contacted Allen NG, asking him to look a evidence the film is a fraud and a propaganda scheme, and challenged him to put me on a podcast where I am being facts and evidence to show that not only is he publishing false information, but that he’s making some very serious claims about a person, even though the film was cancelled by Tubi, Amazon, and other streaming services, due allegations of racketeering, against the director.
If you’re for a fool who can easily be tricked by a con man, and will readily fall for a scam, you’ll find it in Allen Ng.