Ricci Wynne Exploited SF’s Ills for Online Clout, Some Say. His Arrest Draws New Scrutiny

Social media provocateur Ricci Wynne gained his following by sharing stark — some would say exploitative — views of a San Francisco in decline, seeing himself as a watchdog for crime. Now, he is charged with committing a serious one of his own.

Wynne, 39, pleaded not guilty to felony pimping charges Wednesday afternoon, two days after his arrest at San Francisco International Airport garnered national media attention. He was found in possession of phones with evidence of sex advertisements for a woman, communications saying the woman was available for sex in exchange for money, and messages collecting money, according to the district attorney’s office.

The case has brought renewed scrutiny to a notorious network of so-called truth tellers on X who post videos of people using drugs and struggling on the streets.

After serving a two-year prison sentence for drug and weapons charges that began in 2019, Wynne rose to internet micro-celebrity by posting a video parodying Mr. Rogers on X in 2022. In it, he skips through a homeless encampment in the Tenderloin, smiling and panning the camera to tents and tarp structures scattered on the sidewalks.

Since then, he has become known for his videos of people passed out on the streets, in the depths of mental health episodes, or selling drugs. He has also appeared on Fox News multiple times to trash San Francisco.

He and others say they share their content in the name of exposing the issues the city faces and putting pressure on elected officials to do better.

“It’s a way to get the information out, to make sure the public is aware this is what’s happening,” said Erica Sandberg, a consumer finance reporter who shares similar content with her 20,000 followers on the social media platform. “This is what we see. This is what people are experiencing.”

But advocates who work in the Tenderloin aren’t sure the videos do much but hurt the people in them.

Mike Discepola, the director of health services at social service nonprofit GLIDE, said that even if some of these social media users have good intentions, their content can have negative effects.

“It’s unkind to violate people’s privacy and show them in conditions that may not be at their best, where they may be struggling, and obviously, it has impact on people’s ability to feel good about themselves,” he told KQED.

People living on the streets often feel vilified or judged, which only causes them to turn away from services or support, Discepola said, adding that this kind of content can perpetuate that cycle.

Sandberg, who also appeared on Fox earlier this year, said she doesn’t like accounts that have a “salacious” slant. When the content is aimed at getting attention from elected officials and holding their feet to the fire, though? “Brilliant,” she said.

“What started me many years ago on this path was that I wasn’t seeing in the media the truth,” she said. “It was always, ‘We’re doing better,’ and nothing was making sense. Two plus two was not equaling four. So it was really important to me to get that information out in a way that I found to be accurate and respectful.”

She’s praised Wynne and other accounts like “bettersoma” and “jj smith” for their posts, which display similarly controversial content. Adam Mesnick, who owns Deli Board and runs @bettersoma, declined to be interviewed by KQED, saying the backlash he receives for his content is too impactful.

Both Mesnick and the man known as “jj smith” share photos of people using drugs, passed out on city streets, receiving overdose-reversing care, and even deceased. Mesnick also checks to see if people who look unconscious are breathing and has called 911 to get them help, he told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2023. When he’s out photographing, he carries Narcan, he said.

Discepola agrees that there can be value in showing the conditions of the streets — but a better way to do it might be to humanize those being photographed.

Harry Williams, a photographer who started a project photographing the corner of Ellis and Jones streets in the Tenderloin, has done that.

“I photograph the people that I meet, the random people that kind of come through there, but also just like the day-to-day kind of things that happen,” he said. “There are people who are homeless, and there are people using drugs, and sometimes that’s going on when I’m there and I’m capturing it.”

But his images also capture more human elements of people who live in the Tenderloin. One shows four people sitting around — in wheelchairs and on overturned five-gallon buckets — deep in conversation and laughing. Another shows a woman gazing down at an older man lying next to a shopping cart stuffed with his clothes and personal belongings. Littered needles and tinfoil are in the background of many of the images.

“I wanted to show like, ‘This is a reality that a family who lives there might be walking by every day,’ but not in their face,” Williams told KQED.

He believes the biggest difference between his work and the man-on-the-street style videos that go viral on social media is the relationship he’s formed with the people he photographs.

Almost daily, people living in nearby single-room occupancy housing or who are unhoused in the Tenderloin will gather on Ellis and Jones. Williams, who plasters his portraits onto a rotating collage on the corner building there, often joins.

When he photographs someone, he’ll bring them a copy of the image. He’s gained the trust of people who at first refused to be photographed or yelled at him to leave.

“A lot of the people have said to me once I put their images on the wall … ‘Now when people come through here and try to snap pictures of us, they see beautiful pictures of us on the wall and we’re larger than life,’” Williams said. “‘They’re looking up at us now and not looking down at us.’”