“They know so much about me”: Gossip forums are bigger and more dangerous than ever

Online gossip forums are bigger than ever

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Long Reads


“They know so much about me”: Gossip forums are bigger and more dangerous than ever

By Alice Barraclough

2 years ago

3 min read

Caroline Calloway has opened up about a nasty subreddit devoted to her. Tattle Life, meanwhile, remains active despite calls for it to be shutdown.

From Jane Austen’s Mrs Bennet to the cult classic Gossip Girl, it’s fair to say that we, as humans, are fascinated with the juicy details of other people’s lives. But when does it go too far? Of late, a new breed of anonymous online forums dedicated to dissecting the lives of public figures and influencers has many people asking that very question.

“Unbearably entitled and a little bit stupid,” reads one of the forum titles dedicated to an influencer on the gossip site Tattle Life, which launched in 2018 and currently racks up millions of views. “Frozen face and too much bling, but finally she’s got the ring!” reads another. There are over 37,000 threads on Tattle Life, many with similarly nasty titles – and even nastier comments – where, behind the cloak of anonymity (anyone can register and create an anonymous account) people with an online following become targets for vicious rumours and harassment.

Trolls have reportedly contacted brands their targets work with in an attempt to sabotage commercial deals and have even reported them to social services for unfounded complaints about their parenting.

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