A University of Pennsylvania professor made some of her social media accounts private and appeared to take down her TikTok account after going viral for appearing to celebrate that the suspected killer of UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson was a graduate of the Ivy League school.
Luigi Mangione, 26, is accused of executing the former insurance executive on a New York City sidewalk last week. He was taken into custody on Monday at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
He is wanted in New York for charges including Murder in the Second Degree, Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree and Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second Degree.
Since Thompson’s murder last week, social media has been flooded with posts celebrating or mocking Thompson’s killing as justified because of anger people feel about their health insurance claims being denied.
After Mangione was taken into custody as a person of interest on Monday, UPenn professor Julia Alekseyeva appeared to share several social media posts fawning over the murder suspect.
In one TikTok, Alekseyeva, who posts under the name, “The Soviette,” smiles while playing the song, “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from the famous musical Les Miserables.
The text on screen reads, “Have never been prouder to be a professor at the University of Pennsylvania,” she wrote, replacing the “E” in Pennsylvania with the number 3.
Alekseyeva is an Assistant Professor of English and Cinema & Media Studies at the university and identifies herself as “a socialist and ardent antifascist” on her website.
The posts picked up steam after they were reposted to X by popular account Libs of TikTok and UPenn graduate Eyal Yakoby.
“DISGUSTING,” Yakoby wrote in response. “UPenn professor Julia Alekseyeva celebrates the alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO’s assassin and that the murderer attended UPenn. To anyone wondering how America’s youth becomes so radical to murder someone, it is because of the extremist professors.”
Yakoby also shared an alleged screenshot from Alekseyeva’s Instagram stories where she called Mangione, “the icon we all need and deserve,” in response to a magazine article purporting to know the murder suspect’s sexuality.
Yakoby also claimed the professor had a history of left-wing activism on campus.
Since her post was shared to X by others, Alekseyeva has made her Instagram account private and appears to have taken down her TikTok account under the same name, though her X account still remains public.
The University of Pennsylvania and Alekseyeva did not immediately return requests for comment.
Other professors have also received backlash for their hot takes mocking Thompson’s murder.
“Today, we mourn the death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, gunned down…. wait, I’m sorry – today we mourn the deaths of the 68,000 Americans who needlessly die each year so that insurance company execs like Brian Thompson can become multimillionaires,” Anthony Zenkus, a senior lecturer in social work at Columbia University’s School of Social Work, posted to X on December 4.
Zenkus’ post racked up over 7 million views and was flooded with comments criticizing him. In reply to these comments, the professor clarified that he wasn’t justifying murder.
“Murdering someone publicly in cold blood in broad daylight is never okay,” he wrote in a follow-up post on December 6. “Best we kill them by denying or delaying their claim for life-saving medical treatment so their families can watch them wither away till they die slowly and in severe and excruciating pain.”
These professors certainly weren’t the only ones on social media expressing these sentiments.
Former Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz shared multiple posts appearing to at least understand the killing while suggesting other health insurance executives should be targeted.
Hours after news broke of Thompson’s death, Lorenz wrote on the social media site Bluesky, “And people wonder why we want these executives dead,” alongside a report about Blue Cross Blue Shield no longer covering anesthesia for the full length of some surgeries. The insurance company has since reversed course on this proposed policy change after facing backlash.
Lorenz has since repeatedly doubled down, even appearing to tell TV host Piers Morgan that she felt “joy” over Thompson’s murder.
