While Facebook’s “unfollow” option ensures that most of us don’t have to listen to assholes make tasteless jokes about the dead, public figures—like Robin Williams’ daughter Zelda, who was thrust into the role after her father’s tragic suicide Monday—don’t always have that option. Williams (who was, in fact, named after the Nintendo game and co-starred with her dad in an ad for Ocarina Of Time 3D)
posted this lovely tribute to her father on Twitter and Instagram Monday night:
But since the anonymity of the Internet allows shitty people to evolve into their shittiest form like a bunch of sociopathic Pokemon, Williams’ account was almost immediately inundated with hateful comments and horrific pictures, reportedly including graphic Photoshopped renditions of her father’s dead body. After initially asking supporters to push back against the trolls by reporting them, Williams decided last night to withdraw from social media entirely. Williams says she’ll be away for a while: “I will be leaving this account for a bit while I heal and decide if I’ll be deleting it or not,” she said on Instagram, adding:
“In this difficult time, please try to be respectful of the accounts of myself, my family and my friends. Mining our accounts for photos of dad, or judging me on the number of them is cruel and unnecessary…I shared him with a world where everyone was taking their photo with him, but I was lucky enough to spend time with him without cameras too.”
Bad job, Internet.