Speaker 1: There Are No Girls on the Internet. As a production
Speaker 1: of My Heart Radio and Unboss Creative. I'm Bridget Todd
Speaker 1: and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet.
Speaker 1: We've talked a lot on this show about social media
Speaker 1: amateur detectives and how dangerous they can be. And if
Speaker 1: you're on TikTok, you might have seen a good example
Speaker 1: of what I mean play out in real time on TikTok.
Speaker 1: This week on TikTok, Sabrina pratts bio reads, I'm a
Speaker 1: thirty or four year old male who has been dressing
Speaker 1: up since I was little, working on coming out. Sabrina
Speaker 1: likes to film videos dancing and high heeled boots, tight jeans,
Speaker 1: flashy blouses and sometimes a ponytailed, shoulder length wig in
Speaker 1: what looks like a visibly old, deteriorating home. There's ladders
Speaker 1: and buckets in the background and stains on the floor,
Speaker 1: and then a few of the videos of Sabrina dancing
Speaker 1: there's a monitor in the background with grainy images on them. Now,
Speaker 1: maybe these videos look a little bit weird actually, if
Speaker 1: you've never been inside a really old building before. And
Speaker 1: at first people on TikTok were using Sabrina's videos to
Speaker 1: make jokes about being in sad looking locations, things like
Speaker 1: a night out at your hometown bar the night before Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: But increasingly people on TikTok started accusing Sabrina of being
Speaker 1: up to something more sinister than just dancing. TikTok's algorithm
Speaker 1: surface videos on my for you page, some of which
Speaker 1: had tens of thousands of views, accusing Sabrina of being
Speaker 1: a serial killer. The evidence amateur Sluice on TikTok said
Speaker 1: those stains on the floor were actually blood stains. Those
Speaker 1: difficult to see grainy images on the monitors behind Sabrina, well,
Speaker 1: they said that those were video feeds so Sabrina could
Speaker 1: keep tabs on captive victims. One video even said that
Speaker 1: Sabrina's flashy heels and outfits were the clothing belonging to
Speaker 1: women being held captive in the old home before it
Speaker 1: was shut down. I scrolled a Facebook page full of
Speaker 1: hundreds of wannabe detectives making useless claims and accusations about
Speaker 1: Sabrina and Sabrina's family. Well, those people finally got to
Speaker 1: the bottom of this conspiracy theory, and get ready to
Speaker 1: have your mind blown. It turns out Sabrina works in
Speaker 1: construction and purchases old homes to renovate, and Sabrina likes
Speaker 1: filming dancing TikTok's while taking breaks from work, just like
Speaker 1: so many other people trying to have fun on the platform. Now,
Speaker 1: Sabrina made a video on TikTok trying to put these
Speaker 1: conspiracy theories to rest while sobbing, saying I didn't do
Speaker 1: anything wrong and I'm sick of being hurt by this.
Speaker 1: I'm just like anyone else. I just want to be
Speaker 1: loved and accepted and I'm not. I'm getting treated worse
Speaker 1: than anyone coming out like me. I would have posted
Speaker 1: Sabrina's audio here, but honestly it's really hard to listen
Speaker 1: to because it's just so sad, and I think it
Speaker 1: shows that there is a baseline assumption around who the
Speaker 1: Internet is for and who it isn't for, and who
Speaker 1: could expect to feel safe and seen there. People compared
Speaker 1: Sabrina to Buffalo Bill to see Real Killer from Silence
Speaker 1: of the Lambs. Just because Sabrina wears flashy blouses and
Speaker 1: high heels, it should go without saying that that does
Speaker 1: not mean someone is a serial killer, and that comparison
Speaker 1: alone is so cruel. It also comes off as a
Speaker 1: really classist. Just because Sabrina is spending time and a
Speaker 1: dilapidate at home, that does not mean that someone must
Speaker 1: be being held against their will there. And while some
Speaker 1: users have taken down their videos from TikTok making these
Speaker 1: kinds of accusations about Sabrina as of me recording this,
Speaker 1: there are still plenty of videos on that platform racking
Speaker 1: up views who still maintain that something unseemly is going
Speaker 1: on in Sabrina's home, even after Sabrina tearfully spoke out.
Speaker 1: So where does it end? Now? I get why engaging
Speaker 1: in a conspiracy theory online can seem fun. Who doesn't
Speaker 1: like the feeling of figuring out a puzzle, But when
Speaker 1: thousands of people are using someone's actual life for this
Speaker 1: kind of cruel entertainment, it's not just harmless fun. And
Speaker 1: I get that thinking that you're putting together the clues
Speaker 1: to bring down a serial killer or from your phone,
Speaker 1: it's probably a lot more exciting to believe than the
Speaker 1: reality that there are people out there that are living
Speaker 1: very different lives from our own, and that that doesn't
Speaker 1: make them any less human or me. They deserve to
Speaker 1: be cruelly harassed just for making videos on the Internet.
Speaker 1: Got a story about an interesting thing in tech, or
Speaker 1: just want to say hi? You can re us at
Speaker 1: Hello at tangodi dot com. You can also find transcripts
Speaker 1: for today's episode at tangodi dot com. There Are No
Speaker 1: Girls on the Internet was created by me Bridget Tod.
Speaker 1: It's a production of iHeart Radio and Unboss creative Jonathan
Speaker 1: Strickland as our executive producer. Terry Harrison is our producer
Speaker 1: and sound engineer. Michael Amato is our contributing producer. I'm
Speaker 1: your host, Bridget Todd. If you want to help us grow,
Speaker 1: rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeart Radio, check out the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast,
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