‘Gap-toothed Essex fishwife.’
‘She must have made her money on OnlyFans.’
I reckon I’m the only person in the country walking around wearing T-shirts with phrases like these on them.
They represent just a fraction of the thousands of hurtful comments I’ve received in the last few years from trolling.
I’ve been abused online for so long that last year, I decided to take my power back and raise money for an anti-bullying charity by turning hate into merch.
But after the news that the founder of notorious gossip website Tattle Life has been unmasked and told to pay £300,000 in damages towards a couple defamed on the forum, I want to remind people that this is no laughing matter.
The founder of Tattle Life, where users comment on celebrities, social media personalities, and even ordinary members of the public, was finally named as Sebastian Bond, and I for one am thrilled that there is a face to the name.
It was March 2023 when I had my first grim experience with Bond’s hateful website.
Friends and clients began messaging ‘have you seen this Lisa?’
I’d just finished the launch of a business course and someone on a parenting forum had started a thread about me.
It only took a few pages of initially innocuous discussion before the thread picked up speed, hundreds of posts from people who didn’t know me and have never worked with me delving into every part of my life.
It spread to other sites, including Tattle, although at the time I was more worried about the volume than what was being said on what site.
As the days went on, it felt relentless.
More posts, more discussions across multiple different platforms. All from people who knew nothing about me.
I was accused of running a pyramid scheme, of duping clients. Before long people criticised my hair, my teeth and my face.
Some even threatened to report me to HMRC.
Initially, I had only vaguely known of Tattle as ‘just another gossip site’. But after I was targeted there and elsewhere, I saw the real impact. And it isn’t good.
That’s why I was so happy Tattle was finally exposed – not just because of what I went through, but because many other people I know have experienced the same.
People who defend Tattle and other gossip forums might argue that it is warranted, that it’s about holding unscrupulous influencers and those selling fake ‘get rich quick’ schemes ‘accountable’ but I’m living proof innocent questions can turn into a witch hunt for absolutely nothing.
I’d done absolutely nothing wrong, yet still I was torn apart.
Whenever anyone stuck up for me, trolls would assume it was just me in disguise.
It was crazy that it was apparently okay for trolls to pick apart every element of my life, but for them to not even be able to show their first name? All while their founder made money each day from my bullying.
As the couple who sued the site said, ‘for nearly a decade, the hate site Tattle Life has profited as a space where users could defame, harass, stalk and attack others online – all behind a veil of seeming anonymity.’
I couldn’t agree more.
My experience was made worse by the fact that I was bullied throughout my childhood, and I felt like the cycle was repeating.
Because that’s all the users on Tattle and other sites seem to be: bullies.
Just take a look at the over 22million messages that have been posted on the site.
Even as I type, Tattle threads of big names like Mrs Hinch (there are 715 separate threads about her) and Harry and Meghan (514 threads) are updated by the minute. And you don’t need to scroll too far to find the kind of abuse that has led to the founder of the site having to pay out a six-figure sum.
The irony of presenting a wholesome, positive persona online (Sebastian Bond is a wellness and vegan cooking influencer with over 135,000 followers) while operating a toxic abuse platform was not lost on me.
When things really ramped up, I started talking about it on my social media, and discovered so many of my friends and clients were trolled too.
I joined a group with other influencers who have been trying to find out how to stop Tattle for years and this is the first breakthrough we’ve seen since we started.
But while the unmasking of Bond is a victory, it’s only just the start. While we know the name of the man profiting from this all, we’re yet to know the names and faces of the accounts who spend their days bullying in the name of ‘gossip.’
While there’s much to celebrate in this news, depressingly there are still plenty of other places to troll people online.
Frankly I think we need to find a way to unmask trolls, especially when it comes to defamation. The Tattle case proves that we’re getting closer to it, but my principle is that if you’re willing to say these things about a stranger, you should be able to put your name to it.
Unless we start taking online abuse more seriously across the internet, the defeat of Tattle will all have been for nothing.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk.
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