A WIRED investigation documents the case of Maddie Kowalski, a Florida State University student whose non-consensual intimate videos were distributed online and subsequently went viral, receiving over 8.5 million views. The incident exposed what has become known as the "burnerverse" – a loosely organised network of anonymous college sports fan accounts that has systematised the sexual harassment and humiliation of young women as a form of participatory abuse. The story matters because it reveals how online anonymity enables coordinated harassment campaigns that blur the line between internet strangers and real-world peers, with devastating consequences for victims.

The perpetrators included Maddie's own classmates using burner accounts, who subjected her to intensive harassment over a 24-hour period including contacting her parents and placing bets about whether she would harm herself. According to WIRED senior writer Ej Dickson, who spent months investigating the burnerverse, whilst many accounts within this community are benign sports fan pages, a significant segment has become explicitly racist, misogynistic and antisemitic, with doxing young women as a systematic practice. The investigation highlights how this network operates as an amorphous, loosely connected community that has transformed sexual abuse into an organised subculture.