O.J. Simpson’s Strange Internet Afterlife

Orenthal James “O.J.” Simpson, former American football star and actor, died yesterday at the age of 76. Simpson, whose life was overshadowed by the infamous trial in which he was accused and ultimately acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, not to mention a subsequent 2008 armed robbery conviction, remained a figure of intense public scrutiny until his last days. However, his final years after being released from prison in 2017 were marked not by sports or film, but instead by his unlikely emergence as a prolific social media user, where he developed a “posthumous” reputation as a poster discussing topics ranging from sports commentary to racial justice.