The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden has reactivated its Twitter account, two months after deleting it in response to meme-driven cyberbullying over the death of Harambe the gorilla.
The zoo stopped tweeting on August 21 and reactivated its account on Tuesday. It has posted three tweets since then.
The zoo stepped away from the account in late August to stop harassment, but internet trolls are already back on the attack, responding to each new post by the zoo with comment after comment referencing Harambe.
The 17-year-old silverback gorilla was shot and killed by zookeepers in May, after a boy fell into his enclosure.
@CincinnatiZoo @okapiproject YOURE BACK!! TOO BAD YOU CANT BRING HARAMBE BACK ??????
— ??? (@ariibananaa) October 18, 2016
@CincinnatiZoo you made a big mistake coming back
— Raseri (@The_Raseri) October 18, 2016
just like you made a mistake shooting Harambe
@CincinnatiZoo nice ape on this, too bad it's not Harambe pic.twitter.com/hNqdUHwRlG
@CincinnatiZoo @ThaneMaynard @PolarBears then why did you hunt harambe?
— shay (@seamusthewalrus) October 19, 2016
A representative from the zoo was not immediately available for comment.
Experts told PRWeek in August that the Cincinnati Zoo’s decision to delete its account was an overreaction and could have negative consequences for the brand.