On Feb. 20th, 2020, an Australian news channel NITV tweeted a feature story of 9-year-old Quaden Bayles after a viral video of himself crying circled around Facebook. The video, which was filmed by his mom Yarraka Bayles, showed Quaden hysterically sobbing about bullies making fun of his condition – achondroplasia. He explicitly cried out, “I want to kill myself,” which alarmed people all over social media, causing the video to be shared online.
Celebrities such as Hugh Jackman noticed the story online and shared his support for Quaden on Twitter.
Quaden – you’ve got a friend in me. #BeKind @LokelaniHiga https://t.co/8dr3j2z8Sy pic.twitter.com/jyqtZYC953
— Hugh Jackman (@RealHughJackman) February 20, 2020
In addition, a GoFundMe page was created for Quaden to go to Disneyland.
One day since Quaden’s story was shared by NITV, controversial rumors started to rise about the boy. After his Instagram account was discovered, which contained photos and videos that were seen for a 9-year-old as “inappropriate,” rumors went around online questioning the boy’s real age and intentions.
Famous YouTuber Rice Gum tweeted screenshots of the boy’s Instagram photos and a conversation he had with Quaden in response to the aftermath of the video. The boy used the “n” word to address Rice Gum sparking even more controversy.
This 9 year old kid went viral because he was getting bullied. Him and his family raised up to $40,000 so I had to DM HIM 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/bJwMu1F7VI
— RiceGum (@RiceGum) February 21, 2020
Although, these controversial rumors did not receive much attention due to the lack of evidence.
Since the spark of these rumors, the original Facebook video of Quaden crying was removed and the boy’s Instagram account was deleted.
The following analytical insights taken from Sysomos are data visuals that show the rise and fall of Quaden’s story in a 7-day period: Feb. 18th, 2020 – Feb. 24th, 2020
Latest Twitter Activity
The highest spike was on Feb. 21st, 2020 which was set at 8.2k Twitter mentions. In the total 7-day period, there were 105.7k Twitter mentions. The Feb. 21st spike was the morning after NITV tweeted the feature story of the boy close to midnight on Feb. 20th. The following day when everyone was awake at 10 am, the story went viral.
"If you get bullied just stand up for yourself." 9-year-old Murri boy, Quaden tackles bullying head-on and receives an outstanding community response. #EXCLUSIVE #QuadenBayles pic.twitter.com/UEJBPiP1Js
— NITV (@NITV) February 21, 2020
The next peak, which spiked at 2.6k on Feb. 22nd, was from rumors starting to spread throughout social media about the Quaden being a scam after people discovered the boy’s Instagram account and assumed that Quaden was actually an adult.
The final small peak, which spiked at 1.1k on Feb. 24th, was when people found out that the rumor of Quaden being an adult was a lie after other family members started to speak up. Although, people still argued that Quaden’s intentions were not good, despite the age rumor being disproven.
Sentiment
After analyzing the spikes and the sentiment from the 7-day period, the majority of online Twitter users are still showing support for Quaden. There is a positive sentiment of 48%. Although, there is a small but “loud” group online who sees Quaden’s story as a scam. This is represented by the negative sentiment, which is set at 23.1%. The neutral sentiment is set at 26.0%, which is represented by people who are still unsure about whether Quaden’s story is virtuous.
Embedded Most Tweet
"If you get bullied just stand up for yourself." 9-year-old Murri boy, Quaden tackles bullying head-on and receives an outstanding community response. #EXCLUSIVE #QuadenBayles pic.twitter.com/UEJBPiP1Js
— NITV (@NITV) February 21, 2020
NITV was the most retweeted tweet. This Australian news channel broke the story on the night of the 20th, which gained attention from Twitter users and American news outlets the very next morning.
Boy who was severely bullied at school gets invited to lead all-star rugby team out for their next match.
Quaden Bayles, who has dwarfism, received an outpouring of support worldwide after his mom shared an emotional clip of him on social media. https://t.co/OcTkrdBrA7 pic.twitter.com/pTqzUD8PSO
— ABC News (@ABC) February 21, 2020
Geography
What’s interesting about the geography data was that 46.1% of the demographic were based in the United States. Even though the boy is from Australia, his story was picked up by American news outlets and was supported by many Twitter users in the U.S.
The second demographic comes from Spain which is at 11.1%. The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, tweeted his support for Quaden and the end for bullying. Sanchez’s tweet gained a lot of attraction from Spain users.
Dear Quaden, I do want a fairer world. For you, for everyone. That's why I'm in politics, to transform it. For you not to be bullied. Trust me, your life inspires us all. I send you a kiss from Spain to you and to your family. pic.twitter.com/rFGF0fUrua
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) February 22, 2020
Austalia comes third in the demographic data; however, this makes sense since the U.S. has a bigger population and many American news outlets, such as ABC and CNN, are familiar to more people around the world.
Word Cloud
The word cloud gives us more insight into the spikes throughout the 7-day period. The phrase “Dear Quaden” represents the outpour of support towards Quaden from Twitter users. Another word, “stand,” comes from NITV’s tweet that broke the story.
“If you get bullied, just stand up for yourself.”
This quote that NITV tweeted comes from Quaden after doing a feature on him and his story.
Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, tweeted support to Quaden, saying
“I do want a fairer world. For you, for everyone. That’s why I’m in politics, to transform it. For you not to be bullied. Trust me, your life inspires us all. I send you a kiss from Spain to you and to your family.”
His tweet prompted “Spain,” “kiss,” and “fairer world” to be featured in the word cloud. For “politics,” Sanchez talked about his reason for being in politics was to create a fairer world for everyone. This tweet also explains why Spain was the second-largest demographic of mentions coming from Spain. Ultimately, Sánchez’s tweet had a massive impact on the overall word cloud itself and the way that people first responded to this story.
The overall theme here is showing support for Quaden however, words such as “year” and “old ” bring more attention to the topic of controversy surrounding Quaden’s actual age. There was speculation that the supposed 9-year old was actually 18 years old. Another word related to controversy shown on the word cloud is “trust” with many questioning whether or not they should trust the video for being real.
Buzz Graph
Similarly to the word cloud, several words shown on the buzz graph resemble people’s support for Quaden. “World” showed up on the buzz graph to which meant things such as “well wishes around the world” and “praying for a better world that embraces diversity”. These tweets have been tweeted by mostly American Twitter users.
One significant connection that stands out on the buzz graph is the connection between “quaden”, “school” and “bullied”. The majority of tweets circulating this story included those three words, which showed support towards Quaden. The words “Quaden” and “old” also have a strong connection within the buzz graph as those two words represent the massive controversy of age circulating this story.
In conclusion, the majority of the words on the graph resonate positively with only a few that are negative. This is due to the rumors of his age being proven false.