Chapter 258 The Terrifying War on the Internet
That night, the entertainment industry was awash with breaking news.
First, photos of Evelyn, William, and others were leaked. Rumors swirled that Evelyn was tied to a mysterious wealthy businessman, but no one could provide concrete details.
Alice's photo sparked a renewed trend for classical fashion.
As for William, he was surprisingly dubbed the "Most Handsome Bodyguard of the Year."
Hmm, it seemed the public mistook him for a bodyguard.
However, these gossip news tidbits were quickly overshadowed by the scandal surrounding Mason.
By the wee hours of the morning, another bombshell dropped: renowned writer and playwright Donald publicly gave Joseph the middle finger at an event and declined Joseph's involvement in his play.
Despite the late hour, the internet was ablaze, and major platforms were buzzing.
This New York Film Festival was certainly a goldmine for media outlets in terms of web traffic.
Any one of these stories could have been the hottest topic for days on end.
Yet, all these events had taken place on this very night.
William returned to his home on East 62nd Street. Lacking the urge to sleep, he decided to check out the news, only to stumble upon his own photo.
"Most Handsome Bodyguard of the Year?" William chuckled. Did he really look so much like a bodyguard?
Of course, he also saw the news about Mason's downfall. Skimming through it, he realized it was a classic case of everyone piling on when someone's down. But the comment section seemed rather intriguing!
Aside from those slamming Mason, there were others criticizing Joseph. Someone even shared a link with a juicy headline: "Shocking: Renowned Playwright Donald Declines Joseph's Involvement, Gives Him the Middle Finger at the New York Film Festival."
William realized that being a spectator,?"grabbing popcorn", was quite entertaining.
The headline was indeed very catchy.
Curiosity piqued, William couldn't resist clicking on the link.
The content was juicy.
In essence, it said that at the New York Film Festival, the famous writer and playwright Donald had refused to let Joseph act in his play. He even declared that he'd rather have a dog play the lead role than Joseph. Accompanying the article was a picture of Donald giving Joseph the middle finger.
William was present at the scene and knew that Donald's words weren't exactly as reported. However, the conveyed sentiment did seem roughly accurate.
Yet, with the spin given by the entertainment editor, Donald's comments and actions appeared even more brash and aggressive. This made the entire situation more dramatic and heightened the sense of conflict.
Slyly, the entertainment editor managed to avoid taking sides. They even listed the works of both Donald and Joseph, ending the article by asking readers their opinion on who was in the right.
William couldn't resist scrolling through the comments.
He had initially assumed that public opinion would be evenly divided on this issue.
To his surprise, about 80% of the comments were lambasting Donald, calling him vulgar, while praising Joseph's outstanding acting abilities.
Some even dug up that Donald wasn't exactly a renowned playwright as he was made out to be.
Instead, he began as an internet novelist, a third-rate writer at best, with some of his previous works bordering on melodramatic romance.
Online sentiment against Donald was overwhelmingly negative.
Donald was painted as a third-tier writer who began his career writing erotic fiction, depicted as a rude, uncouth, and somewhat creepy older man.
On the other hand, Joseph was portrayed as a talented actor with a promising future, gentle and a pitiable newcomer to the entertainment industry.
William was captivated by this phenomenon on the internet.
There was no denying that Donald seemed to harbor some bias against Joseph. But wasn't Joseph just an actor? And wasn't Donald simply a scriptwriter?
If he wrote a script and didn't want a certain actor to play a role, that seemed reasonable. It seemed extreme for him to be lambasted so severely for that choice.
Of course, what was more significant was that William shared the same prejudice against Joseph as Donald did...
The top trending comment in the section was about organizing a mass report against Donald, alleging violations in his writing content.
William found this smokeless war rather fascinating.
If Donald's writings were indeed above board, then even if he was reported, what would it matter?
Law enforcement wouldn't act without just cause, right?
Out of curiosity, William, who wasn't particularly adept with smartphones, took it upon himself to download a novel-reading app and began searching for Donald's works.
Sure enough, the comment section was exploding.
Yet, contrary to William's expectations, many were voicing their support for Donald. Some affluent readers were even generously tipping the author.
It seemed that everyone had their own home turf.
William also noticed a pinned review from Donald himself: "I admit to refusing Joseph a role in the film adaptation of this novel. I felt he didn't fit the image of my protagonist. However, I no longer hold the rights to this book. Even for the adapted screenplay, I only have the right to give suggestions on casting, not make final decisions. Still, I rejected Joseph as the lead…"
Responses to Donald's review were mixed, with many expressing support, but also many jeering.
Joseph's fans were quick to ridicule: "You're just a trashy scriptwriter. Having my idol Joseph act in your screenplay is a huge boon for you. How dare you reject him? I'm going to report you."
The majority of the replies to this comment came from other authors on the same novel platform.
These literary types didn't mince words when it came to insults, with a lot of sarcastic and derisive remarks. The fan who threatened to report was probably fuming in anger.
William soon noticed something: it wasn't that the comment section was untouched by Joseph's fans' venom. Rather, there were three administrators constantly deleting their negative comments.
With thousands of reviews, William relaxed in his wingback chair, thoroughly entertained. These lively reviews seemed even more interesting than the novel itself.
The funniest part was that Joseph's fans apparently organized a mass report against Donald's novel, aiming to have it taken down. However, the content was a pure historical fantasy, with no violations whatsoever, rendering their reporting efforts futile.
So, they resorted to an even more extreme measure: reporting the books of those authors who supported Donald.
Given that this was an online novel platform with varied content quality, several online novelists had written content that violated platform rules.
As a result, while Donald's book wasn't taken down, the books of those authors who came forward to support Donald were banned.
This escalated the online feud immensely.
Not only did the authors get involved, but their readers also jumped into the fray under Donald's novel.
Imagine the fury of those readers, peacefully enjoying their reads, only to find them suddenly banned.
Those authors update daily, and some have even been writing for several years. They were banned because of this incident. What Joseph should be grateful for is that these people didn't directly confront him and physically assault him in person. This is already these authors showing restraint towards him.
Bored, William spent over an hour reading the reviews.
He then took a look at Donald's book and thought it was decent.
Without leaving any comment or feedback, he turned off his device and went to bed, curious to see the state of the review section by morning.
Previously, he had believed wars were fought with guns, cannons, knives, and swords, where blood would flow like rivers. Today, he got a taste of the wars of the modern era.
A group of people ferociously arguing online, hurling insults with such venom!
Upon reflection, perhaps this arose because people's living conditions had improved so much that they didn't have much to do. With no actual wars in the world, they might just be acting out of sheer boredom and venting their emotions.
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