Abbie Richards

Abbie Richards (born 1996) is a feminist-comedian and environmental activist whose anti-golf campaign and conspiracy theory charts went viral on Twitter in 2020 and 2021.

Abbie Richards
Personal information
Born1996 (age 25–26)
NationalityAmerican
OccupationOnline Personality, Science Communicator
Websitehttps://www.tiktok.com/@tofology
Instagram information
Channel
GenreScience Communication and Anti-conspiracy

Early life and education

Richards was born in 1996 and grew up in Newton, Massachusetts.[1][2] She graduated from Colorado College with a degree in environmental science and as of August 2020 was studying for a masters in climate studies at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands.[1][2]

Comedy career

After graduating from Colorado College, Richards moved to Melbourne to work in standup comedy.[2]

Social media career

She began posting criticism of golf and golf courses on TikTok after running past a golf course in the spring of 2020 and noticing the course's "no trespassing" signs.[1][2] She told The Daily Dot that "the privatization of green spaces, especially during a pandemic when people need to maximize their distance from one another, made me furious."[2] She posted to TikTok a video "about running for president to make golf illegal" which went viral.[1] Her posts focus on concerns about environmental impact and social inequality, but she also includes among her criticisms that the game is boring and "the clothes are ugly".[1][2][3][4] According to Richards her posts "started as a joke, and 100 percent is not a joke anymore" as her concerns became more serious as she did more research.[1][2]

ESPN commenter Kenny Mayne referenced the anti-golf content in a tweet, saying "The producers think the TikTok Golf hater girl @abbieasr is too avant-garde for a full SportsCenter segment".[1][3]

On May 30, 2020, she posted a video showing a protester at a racial justice march during the George Floyd protests talking to an emotional police officer, which received 6 million views.[3] By July 2020, views of her TikTok posts had dropped to under 9000 each in what Screen Rant called an apparent case of shadow banning, either intentional or due to a faulty algorithm.[3] She also was restricted from live streaming on TikTok without explanation.[3]

In January 2021, Richards published an op-ed about golf on Euronews Living entitled "Golf is a giant board game damaging the planet: Time for it to go."[5]

In 2020, Richards created "The Conspiracy Chart", an inverted pyramid assessing various conspiracy theories on a spectrum from "Grounded in Reality" to "Detached from Reality", which according to New Zealand journalist David Farrier "went bonkers on Twitter".[6][7][8] In 2021, Richards created an updated version of the chart that went viral.[9][10]

References
  1. Martinelli, Michelle (2020-08-03). "Meet TikTok's viral environmentalist 'anti-golf girl' who argues against golf courses". USA Today. Archived from the original on 2020-08-05. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  2. Schroeder, Audra (2020-06-04). "Meet the woman who is trying to cancel golf on TikTok". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on 2020-06-05. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  3. Davis, Hubert (2020-07-25). "TikTok Shadowbanned: Major TikToker Shut Out of For You & Live". ScreenRant. Archived from the original on 2020-08-28. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  4. ""Cancel golf!" - Internet personality wants sport…". Bunkered. 2021-01-09. Archived from the original on 2021-01-09. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  5. Richards, Abbie (9 January 2021). "Golf is a giant board game damaging the planet: Time for it to go". Euronews Living. Euronews. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
  6. Farrier, David. "I talk to the creator of the Conspiracy Chart". Webworm. Archived from the original on 2020-11-01. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  7. "Why do people believe in conspiracy theories?". Brut. Archived from the original on 2021-01-18. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  8. Myrman, Dan (6 January 2021). "Abbie Richards & The Inverted Conspiracy Pyramid". Podcasts.nu (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 2021-01-22. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  9. Larson, Shannon (2021-11-29). "This chart on conspiracy theories has gone viral. A local disinformation researcher breaks down what to know - The Boston Globe". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 2021-11-29. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
  10. "Conspiracy theories are everywhere and people don't understand how harmful they are". Twitter.com. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
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