One of Mayor Mike Johnston’s most prominent critics has gone offline.
Do Better Denver’s accounts on Instagram and X, which had nearly 150,000 followers in total, were deactivated as of Tuesday morning.
There was no explanation for the disappearance of the accounts.
The X page for “DoBetterDNVR” displayed an error message, “This account doesn’t exist,” that is typically shown when a user deletes their own account. In contrast, accounts that are banned by the platform are publicly marked as “suspended,” according to information from X. X was formerly known as Twitter.
Do Better Denver’s primary and backup accounts on Instagram were also deactivated.
The account, which was run by one or more anonymous people, posted images of homelessness and violence around Denver, often showing people in the midst of apparent mental health crises. The page often went viral with videos of people who were nude, unconscious or acting strangely, and posts were often set to a soundtrack of classic hip-hop.
The pages often highlighted specific encampments or locations, calling on Denver and neighboring cities to take action. The account’s stated goal was “to bring Denver's drug and homelessness crisis into the spotlight by sharing videos and information.” Its critics said the videos were callous and invasive.
Last month, The Denver Post identified three people it said had contributed content to the accounts. The account’s operators could not immediately be reached for comment.
By Tuesday morning, a new account with the same name and profile picture had popped up on X, claiming that “they” had “tried to cancel me.” But it was not immediately clear whether there was any connection between the new and old anonymous accounts.
