Unless you have been living under a rock, you will have been constantly bombarded with information about the Oscar Pistorius trial via the news, radio, friends and even social media.
On the 14th of February 2013, Oscar allegedly shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. He claims he tragically mistook her for an intruder, on that fateful Valentine ’s Day morning.
Social media has played a large role in the publicity surrounding Oscar’s trial, as everyone seems to have an opinion of his guilt. Oscar’s family even took to the press and made a statement surrounding the social media frenzy. “The disregard that is being shown by some – specifically those commenting via social media – for the profound pain that Reeva’s family and friends are going through is very troubling.”
They then further stated that, “There is not a moment in the day that Oscar does not mourn for his girlfriend and Reeva’s family, and all those who were close to her are in his thoughts constantly.”
While many have taken to social media to bad mouth the Olympic athlete, there is a group of people who do not believe Oscar intentionally shot Reeva. These Oscar fans use the hashtag the #Pistorians. Interestingly the group consists mostly of women from around the world and they defend the athlete against anyone who bad mouths him online.
The #Pistorians was believed to have been started by Laura Lambden from the UK. She frequently tweets to her fellow followers about Oscar. This Oscar fan club even affectionately refer to Oscar, as OP and numerous ‘members’ have even made collages in honour of him, which they refer to as #Oscarporn online. At this stage in the trial no one can conclusively prove or disprove Pistorius’s guilt but social media users seem to have strong opinions either way.