Speaker 1: There Are No Girls on the Internet. As a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio and Unbossed Creative. I'm Bridget Todd and this
Speaker 1: is There Are No Girls on the Internet. So I
Speaker 1: have to start with a quick heads up because this
Speaker 1: episode will deal with some pretty rough stuff sexual and
Speaker 1: physical violence. Because today we're talking about the trial of
Speaker 1: music mogul Sean P. Diddy Combs. Now, this trial has
Speaker 1: been a long time coming. If you're familiar with the
Speaker 1: music group Danny Kane, which was formed on MTV's Making
Speaker 1: the Band reality show in two thousand and five, which
Speaker 1: comb signed to his record label, Bad Boy Records, then
Speaker 1: you've probably heard rumors about Sean Diddy Combs for a while.
Speaker 1: And honestly, the women of Dandy Kine were kind of
Speaker 1: treated like crazy liars when they spoke off about Diddy.
Speaker 1: But now those same women are speaking up in a
Speaker 1: courtroom giving testimony for the States case against him. It's
Speaker 1: important to know that Shawn Combs is more than just
Speaker 1: a musician. He's one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood,
Speaker 1: and his influence reaches far beyond just entertainment, from media
Speaker 1: and politics to tech. Combs really does sit at the
Speaker 1: crossroads of power take Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter, Combs
Speaker 1: was one of his investors, and when questions started swirling
Speaker 1: about how the platform handled things like racial slurs, Elon
Speaker 1: Musk tried to ease concerns by pointing to his personal
Speaker 1: friendship with Ditty, saying, quote, Pok's a good friend of mine.
Speaker 2: We text a lot.
Speaker 1: So what's unbolding with Shawn Combs right now is not
Speaker 1: just another celebrity story. It's a story about power, who
Speaker 1: holds it, how it's protected, and how social media can
Speaker 1: be used not just to shape the narrative, but how
Speaker 1: it's also used to reinforce harmful attitudes and tropes that
Speaker 1: silence victims.
Speaker 2: And shield the elite.
Speaker 1: Now, as soon as I saw that Ditty was arrested
Speaker 1: back in twenty twenty four, I knew it was going
Speaker 1: to be a storm of disinformation, gendered tropes, and has
Speaker 1: truths online. I've actually been following some of how it's
Speaker 1: played out online since then, So now seems like a
Speaker 1: great opportunity to get into all of it. So I'll
Speaker 1: give a little bit of an overview of the charges
Speaker 1: against Combs, some highlights on the trial which is ongoing.
Speaker 1: Then dig into some of the narratives I've seen online
Speaker 1: and what it all means about power, celebrity and our
Speaker 1: current online culture. So here's the basics of the charges
Speaker 1: against Sean Diddy Combs. Combs is facing two different sets
Speaker 1: of charges, civil charges from mostly women but some men,
Speaker 1: who are accusing him of a wide range of sexual crimes,
Speaker 1: and five criminal counts. One count of racketeering conspiracy, two
Speaker 1: counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or corrosion, and
Speaker 1: two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Those five
Speaker 1: criminal charges are what this trial is about. Basically, the
Speaker 1: government says that Shawn Combs used his business enterprise to
Speaker 1: conduct a criminal sex trafficking and kidnapping ring, and that
Speaker 1: he used his money, celebrity, and power to intimidate the
Speaker 1: victims and cover up crimes. Now, I have to say
Speaker 1: I have been really disappointed in how I've seen some
Speaker 1: folks talk about this but talking about his actions as
Speaker 1: like sex parties, which he called quote freak offs. And
Speaker 1: I want to be super clear, Combs is not facing
Speaker 1: charges of being freaky or having freaky sex or freaky
Speaker 1: sex parties. And everybody knows that real freaky people create
Speaker 1: a culture of consent. What he is being accused of
Speaker 1: is being the ring leader of a massive criminal enterprise
Speaker 1: that included subjecting people to a pattern of physical and
Speaker 1: sexual abuse. This is according to federal prosecutors. Investigators alleged
Speaker 1: that over a span of years, Combs would apply victims
Speaker 1: with drugs and resort to violence and intimidation during days
Speaker 1: long sex sessions. He did not do these things alone,
Speaker 1: according to prosecutors, although right now no one else has
Speaker 1: been criminally charged in the case, Combs allegedly had assistants, managers,
Speaker 1: and security staff who made sure that women and male
Speaker 1: sex workers were present during these freak off events, and
Speaker 1: that tell rooms where they were staged were supplied with
Speaker 1: things like lubricant and baby oil. In fact, if there
Speaker 1: is one thing that you've probably heard about this case,
Speaker 1: even if you haven't been paying attention to it, it's
Speaker 1: that investigators took thousands of bottles of baby oil out
Speaker 1: of Shawn Combs's home after a raid that they say
Speaker 1: were used in these sessions. This detail was publicized right
Speaker 1: after Didi's arrest last year, and this is kind of
Speaker 1: a common tactic of prosecutions drop a salacious detail that
Speaker 1: sure to make headlines. The criminal trial against Combs is ongoing,
Speaker 1: but here are a few key points from the trial
Speaker 1: so far. I'll focus on a testimony of four people
Speaker 1: in this summary. One of the victims at the heart
Speaker 1: of this whole situation Cassie Ventura, rapper Kid Cutty, who
Speaker 1: she brisly dated, Cassie's former friend Carrie Morgan, and Cassie's mother.
Speaker 1: So Cassie Ventura is sort of the voice at the
Speaker 1: center of what's going on. The R and B singer
Speaker 1: was in a personal and professional relationship with Shawn Combs
Speaker 1: for over decade. Her lawsuit was really the watershed suit
Speaker 1: that preceded all the other charges. In November of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, she filed a lawsuit against Combs alleging years
Speaker 1: of sexual, emotional, and physical abuse. The lawsuit also named
Speaker 1: Combs's businesses, bad Boy Entertainment, bad Boy Records, Epic Records,
Speaker 1: and Cohn's Enterprise. Just to day after filing, they ended
Speaker 1: up settling the trafficking, rape, and physical assault part of
Speaker 1: the case out of court. They actually settled within hours
Speaker 1: of Cassie filing, but her willingness to come forward really
Speaker 1: opened the floodgates for dozens of other lawsuits against Combs.
Speaker 1: The background of how they got involved with each other,
Speaker 1: I think is pretty telling. Cassie met Diddy when she
Speaker 1: was only nineteen years old and he was thirty seven.
Speaker 1: They started dating, and a year later Cassie signed a
Speaker 1: deal with his record company, bad Boy Entertainment and released
Speaker 1: her first self titled debut album. Now, if you know
Speaker 1: anything about army music, it has been a long time
Speaker 1: question of why Cassie's music career never really took off
Speaker 1: off the way that it probably should have. You know,
Speaker 1: she put out one pretty successful album and then didn't
Speaker 1: put out another album for six years, despite being in
Speaker 1: a creative and romantic partnership with one of the most
Speaker 1: powerful locals in music. I remember there was this feeling
Speaker 1: in the space of like, what is happening with Cassie's career.
Speaker 2: While her lawsuit really shed some light into.
Speaker 1: What was going on, her suit allege is that this
Speaker 1: was all happening at the very beginning of Combs's coercion
Speaker 1: and abuse, which took over her life and included things
Speaker 1: like forcing her to take drugs, forcing her to be
Speaker 1: involved with male sex workers. During these events where participants
Speaker 1: would have sex for hours while Combs would film her
Speaker 1: and frequent beatings. Her lawsuit stated that the beatings were
Speaker 1: often witnessed by Comb's staff, who are employees of bad
Speaker 1: Boy Entertainment and Combs's affiliated businesses. Now we've actually seen
Speaker 1: evidence of some of this. Earlier this year, CNN published
Speaker 1: footage of Combs attacking Cassie in a hotel lobby. Prosecutors
Speaker 1: alleged that there was a male sex worker still in
Speaker 1: their hotel room at the time of the surveillance video recording.
Speaker 1: Prosecutors in court also quoted text messages from Cassie talking
Speaker 1: about the bruises and the fat lip that she received
Speaker 1: as a result of the beating from Combs shown in
Speaker 1: the surveillance video. Now, initially, Combs denied all wrongdoing and
Speaker 1: implied that Cassie was just lying for money until the
Speaker 1: release of that surveillance footage. He initially was able to
Speaker 1: get that footage buried because he allegedly paid off the
Speaker 1: hotel security. After that footage was released, I guess there
Speaker 1: was no denying it and did. He settled with Cassie
Speaker 1: basically within the day, but still legal pressure against him.
Speaker 1: Mountain I have to be honest, Cassie's testimony in court
Speaker 1: over the last few days has been difficult to listen to.
Speaker 1: I should mention she's currently eight months pregnant, so she
Speaker 1: was giving all this testimony while like heavily pregnant. She
Speaker 1: described numerous instances of physical and sexual violence by Combs,
Speaker 1: including being kicked, punched, and dragged. Comb's former assistant backs
Speaker 1: all of this up and his testimony to the court,
Speaker 1: telling the court that one notable incident occurred on a
Speaker 1: private jet in twenty fifteen where Cassie screamed for help.
Speaker 1: She screamed, isn't anybody seeing this during an assault? But
Speaker 1: no one intervened. Cassie testified that Combs forced her into
Speaker 1: these drug fueled sexual encounters with male sex workers, the
Speaker 1: freak offs as he called them, which Combs orchestrated and filmed.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I won't get into all the details here, but the
Speaker 1: stuff that she says happened during those events is really unpleasant.
Speaker 1: And then he allegedly used these recordings to blackmail her
Speaker 1: and would It's threatened to release these videos if she
Speaker 1: did not follow his demands.
Speaker 2: She also talks about how he exerted a lot of
Speaker 2: control over her personal and professional life, including monitoring her
Speaker 2: communications and movements. She describes these very creepy instances where
Speaker 2: he would just appear on announced at her locations, indicating
Speaker 2: that he was probably tracking her. So for a while
Speaker 2: while when Cassi in Combs briefly split, she had a
Speaker 2: short relationship with rapper Kid Cutty, who also testified before
Speaker 2: the court. Cutty testified that in December of twenty eleven,
Speaker 2: Combs allegedly broke into his La home, and during that
Speaker 2: break in, he unwrapped Christmas gifts and locked Cutty's dog
Speaker 2: in a bathroom. A few weeks after this break in,
Speaker 2: Cutty's Porsche was destroyed by a Molotov cocktail explosion. He
Speaker 2: testified that he believes Combs was behind that attack. So
Speaker 2: after Cutty's car was fire bombed in January of twenty twelve,
Speaker 2: which he blamed Combs for, he was like, I have
Speaker 2: to meet Comb's in person and figure this out. He said.
Speaker 1: They met in an La hotel meeting room and Combs
Speaker 1: was quote staring at the window with his hands behind
Speaker 1: his back like a marble super villain.
Speaker 2: It was just him and I in the room.
Speaker 1: We discussed the whole story of how Cassie and I
Speaker 1: started to date and how it ended. His whole point was,
Speaker 1: you were with my girl, and I said. She told
Speaker 1: me you were broken up, and I took her word
Speaker 1: for it. He was calm, and he offered me water twice.
Speaker 1: It was very off putting. It was weird. She was
Speaker 1: so calm. Cassie eventually came. I was upset to find
Speaker 1: that she was back with him. She pretty much explained
Speaker 1: that we fell in love and things just happened. Cassie
Speaker 1: said that she broke up with Cuddy after Combs told
Speaker 1: her that quote he was going to hurt the both
Speaker 1: of us. I also want to include a little bit
Speaker 1: of testimony from a woman named Carrie Morgan, Cassie's former
Speaker 1: best friend. She said that Combs once choked her and
Speaker 1: hit her with a wooden coat hanger, trying to get
Speaker 1: her to reveal who Cassie was allegedly cheating with. This
Speaker 1: incident led to Combs having to pay her thirty thousand
Speaker 1: dollars for her to keep quiet, and ultimately ended her
Speaker 1: almost twenty year friendship with Cassie. She testified that Cassie
Speaker 1: told her that she thought that she was milking it
Speaker 1: and over exaggerating. Her friend had basically had enough, She
Speaker 1: signed an NDA and her and Cassie never spoke again.
Speaker 1: I wanted to include her testimony because she really is
Speaker 1: an outside person with no real connection to this situation anymore.
Speaker 1: So when people try to say this is all some
Speaker 1: kind of a conspiracy against Colmbs, why would someone who
Speaker 1: hasn't spoken up for years, is no longer connected to
Speaker 1: either party, and just as she puts it, wants to
Speaker 1: quote move on with her life, want to be involved
Speaker 1: in a conspiracy to take down Shawn Colmbs. I found
Speaker 1: the testimony of Cassie's mother, Regina, to be amongst the
Speaker 1: most heartbreaking, other than the testimony from Cassie herself. Cassie's
Speaker 1: mom said that she was once forced to pay Comb's
Speaker 1: twenty thousand dollars. Essentially, she says that Combs was angry
Speaker 1: because Cassie was involved with Kid Cutty. He's threatened to
Speaker 1: release tapes of Cassie's involuntary participation with the male sex workers.
Speaker 1: Regina said that in twenty eleven, Combs threatened Cassie via
Speaker 1: email after learning that her and Kidcutty were dating. In
Speaker 1: this email, which was read in the court, did. He
Speaker 1: threaten to release two different sex types of Cassie, including
Speaker 1: one that will be released on Christmas Day. He also
Speaker 1: threatened Cassie and Kid Cutty, saying that they would be
Speaker 1: physically harmed, although not by his hands. Cassie's mom said, quote,
Speaker 1: it was understood that he was going to need twenty
Speaker 1: thousand dollars to recoup money he had already spent on
Speaker 1: her because he was angry that she had had a
Speaker 1: relationship with Kitcutti. He was angry that he had spent
Speaker 1: money on her and that she was with another person.
Speaker 1: Cassie's mom and her husband said they had to take
Speaker 1: out a home equity loan to fulfill the payment that
Speaker 1: Combs allegedly demanded because it was really the only way
Speaker 1: they can get the money. Cassie's mom also photographed all
Speaker 1: of Cassie's injuries from Diddy, which were pretty significant. So
Speaker 1: that's where things are at with this testimony as of
Speaker 1: recording this on May twenty third. All of those claims
Speaker 1: were made in court under oath. Those are just the
Speaker 1: facts of the situation. But like most things these days,
Speaker 1: this is not only playing out in court, it's also
Speaker 1: playing out online. So I want to pipot to talk
Speaker 1: about how this conversation has been going down on the internet.
Speaker 1: So I have seen so many well worn tropes about
Speaker 1: what is happening play out online. The first is the obvious,
Speaker 1: the gold digger trope. This trope has already made a
Speaker 1: few appearances at the trial. Combs's lawyer said in his
Speaker 1: opening statement, So when you hear from the witnesses who
Speaker 1: testify here, who will tell you they were victimized, asked yourself,
Speaker 1: what is their motive?
Speaker 2: For many of them? The answer is simple money. His
Speaker 2: lawyer referred to Cassie's civil suit as quote, a money grab.
Speaker 2: And then the defense lawyer posed this question to the jury,
Speaker 2: how many millions of reasons does this witness swearing to
Speaker 2: tell the truth and nothing but the truth have to lie.
Speaker 2: But here's my thing. Cassie already settled her civil suit
Speaker 2: with Ditty. He settled within hours. So how could.
Speaker 1: Cassie testifying as the state's witness in this criminal trial
Speaker 1: be about money? Another well worn trope that I've seen
Speaker 1: a lot online is why didn't she leave?
Speaker 2: She's an adult, she could have just left.
Speaker 1: This one is so baffling to me because we have
Speaker 1: actual video surveillance footage of exactly what happened when she
Speaker 1: tried to leave. When she left one of these sex
Speaker 1: events at a hotel, Combs followed her, physically attacked her,
Speaker 1: and physically dragged her back to his hotel room.
Speaker 2: So that's why she didn't leave. He also tried to
Speaker 2: blow up kid Cutty's car when she left homes for
Speaker 2: him when she tried to leave, her mom had to
Speaker 2: put up her home as collateral to give twenty thousand
Speaker 2: dollars to a multi millionaire to keep him from releasing
Speaker 2: videos of her and humiliating sex acts.
Speaker 1: So all of that is why she couldn't leave. I mean,
Speaker 1: anybody who knows anything about how abuse works would understand this,
Speaker 1: but especially under these kinds of circumstances. And this is
Speaker 1: such a common trope used against abused women that it
Speaker 1: feels like a cliche. Abusers use emotional manipulation to isolate
Speaker 1: and control their partners. Perversely, abuse can sometimes cause victims
Speaker 1: to feel even more connected to their abusers through the
Speaker 1: process of trauma bonding, which can happen when cycles of
Speaker 1: abuse are interspersed with moments of affection. Cassie basically says
Speaker 1: as much during the trial, she testified that at the
Speaker 1: time when all of the stuff was going down, she
Speaker 1: still had a lot of complicated love for Combs because
Speaker 1: they had been in a relationship for over a decade,
Speaker 1: and obviously that emotional rollercoaster of highs and lows can
Speaker 1: create really confusing emotional ties. Add with that, the fear
Speaker 1: of physical violence, which we saw and is not in
Speaker 1: dispute or other forms of retribution, can keep victims of
Speaker 1: abuse trapped in relationships, which the testimony from Cassie and
Speaker 1: others certainly suggest was a big factor here.
Speaker 3: Let's take a quick break at her back.
Speaker 1: So we're talking about how all these well worn trophes
Speaker 1: about survivors have been showing up in the trial against
Speaker 1: Sean P.
Speaker 3: To B.
Speaker 1: Combs, and how they continue to discredit people from speaking up.
Speaker 1: Another trope I've seen online is the idea that Cassie
Speaker 1: wanted this, She must have wanted this kind of behavior
Speaker 1: from Combs. Combs's legal team did a great job to
Speaker 1: portray her as a woman who, as they put it,
Speaker 1: made voluntary adult choices. They actually had Cassie read text
Speaker 1: messagers that she had written to Combs in court where
Speaker 1: she said things that maybe could be construed like she
Speaker 1: was into what was going on, but Cassie says at
Speaker 1: that point she was really just trying to placate him
Speaker 1: and that it was really just words that she was typing.
Speaker 1: She describes how she would have these big events or
Speaker 1: premieres coming up, and that she was just doing these
Speaker 1: things and pretending to go along with them just to
Speaker 1: try to keep him under control so that he wouldn't
Speaker 1: ruin and blow up more aspects of her life. And truly,
Speaker 1: can there really be any consent in a situation where
Speaker 1: both parties agree there is control, abuse and coercion. Okay,
Speaker 1: So another trope I've seen a lot online is that
Speaker 1: the people who are speaking out are rats. They're going
Speaker 1: against somebody just because they're rats. The rapper Young Thug
Speaker 1: essentially called Kid Cutty a snitch for testifying at all.
Speaker 1: But let's be real, Combs broke into his house and
Speaker 1: blew up his car and Kid Cutty stayed silent about
Speaker 1: it for ten years until he was subpoened by the
Speaker 1: Feds to testify. So this is not someone who was
Speaker 1: just like out looking to thing like a canary against
Speaker 1: somebody who's wrong them.
Speaker 2: And by the way, if somebody blew up my car.
Speaker 1: You best believe I would tell anybody who would listen
Speaker 1: about it right away. A kind of shade of that
Speaker 1: trope that I've also seen online is that Cassie and
Speaker 1: the other people speaking out are just trying to tear
Speaker 1: down a black man. And this one is the trope
Speaker 1: that I would say bothers me the most, because I
Speaker 1: think that there is a certain subsect of people for
Speaker 1: whom a powerful, visible black man will never be able
Speaker 1: to do anything wrong and should always be shielded from accountability,
Speaker 1: even if we have video evidence of him doing something wrong.
Speaker 1: And I think we see some version of this that
Speaker 1: comes out anytime a famous or visible black man is
Speaker 1: accused of a crime, Like we're all supposed to just
Speaker 1: stay silent and protect an abuser because he is a
Speaker 1: black man who is doing good in the community or
Speaker 1: you know, trying to help his people, or whatever you
Speaker 1: want to say. And it just makes me wonder, like,
Speaker 1: why is it that this black man is more worthy
Speaker 1: of protection, but the black woman he abused isn't, And
Speaker 1: that the whole dynamic is that she's meant to stay
Speaker 1: silent so that he can continue to masquerade as a
Speaker 1: black man worth protecting.
Speaker 2: You know, this is all about power, coercion and control,
Speaker 2: and honestly, to me, it's comparable to what we saw
Speaker 2: with Jeffrey Epstein when I was covering Epstein for an
Speaker 2: earlier episode of their No Girls on the Internet. What
Speaker 2: really struck me was the way that Epstein intentionally ingratiated
Speaker 2: himself into the upper echelons of the tech world through
Speaker 2: things like his donations to MIT's renowned Media Lab and
Speaker 2: other respected institutions. He did this with intention to shield
Speaker 2: himself from accountability for his vast crimes, and this is
Speaker 2: a tried and true abuser tactic. Ditty was known for
Speaker 2: his iconic White Party, which was a who's who of
Speaker 2: a lists celebrities and moguls. He donated to all the
Speaker 2: right causes, you know, he donated a million dollars to
Speaker 2: his alma mater and my old workplace, Howard University, right
Speaker 2: here in DC. Basically trying to keep anybody from calling
Speaker 2: him out, because look at.
Speaker 1: All these good things I have done. Could all these
Speaker 1: good causes I stand for? Even Ditty's attorney said in
Speaker 1: a statement, Sean Ditty combs as a music icon, self
Speaker 1: made entrepreneur, loving family man and proven philanthropist who has
Speaker 1: spent the last thirty years building an empire, adoring his children,
Speaker 1: and working to uplift the black community. This is kind
Speaker 1: of a side note, but y'all might remember that Ditty's
Speaker 1: public persona kind of shifted in twenty seventeen when he
Speaker 1: started asking people to call him.
Speaker 2: Love instead of Ditty.
Speaker 1: He had a baby daughter in twenty twenty two, so
Speaker 1: you know, how could he be a sex criminal?
Speaker 2: He has a daughter. He named his daughter.
Speaker 1: Love, which is also the title of his first solo
Speaker 1: studio album in seventeen years, which came out in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three. There's also this glowing New York Times puff
Speaker 1: piece that I think really helped him paint this new persona.
Speaker 1: I have to read a few gems of how the
Speaker 1: New York Times really helped launder this new reputation that
Speaker 1: he was trying to foster for himself. He talks about therapy.
Speaker 1: He said it probably most likely really saved my brain,
Speaker 1: because when you have a genius brain, it is also
Speaker 1: a crazy brain. He talks about how he continue to
Speaker 1: try to understand life beyond the conventional earthly plane, saying
Speaker 1: I'm a big old hippie, said Combs, who has attended
Speaker 1: multiple Burning Man festivals. I had a little bit of
Speaker 1: ego left in me, and when I did Toad, I
Speaker 1: officially had an ego death. Toad is the drug DMT,
Speaker 1: and it's honestly giving that joke. Men need to do
Speaker 1: psychedelics to have the same psychological revelation that most girls
Speaker 1: have had since they were fourteen. So basically it's I
Speaker 1: have done all these great things. I am now a
Speaker 1: loving and centered family man. I could not also be
Speaker 1: a criminal. It's what Harvey Weinstein did, It's what Bill
Speaker 1: Cosby did, It's what r Kelly did, and now it
Speaker 1: is what Diddy is doing. So this is what I hate.
Speaker 1: How there are real people who were hurt in this case,
Speaker 1: but of course, in our current digital media climate, it
Speaker 1: just becomes another way to callously score political points in
Speaker 1: the ever running culture war. So the reality is is
Speaker 1: that Diddy, in building his public persona to protect him
Speaker 1: from accountability, is cozy with lots of famous people, Democrats,
Speaker 1: Republicans of their celebrities. When you look through the different
Speaker 1: pictures of who has been photographed with Ditty over the years,
Speaker 1: it's basically everyone. None of this should be surprising because
Speaker 1: it's of course intentional. You might recall that he had
Speaker 1: a voting initiative called Vote or Die. He endorsed both
Speaker 1: Obama and Biden, which of course Fox News made a
Speaker 1: huge production about while glossing over his documented connections to Trump.
Speaker 1: This actually became a thing during the twenty twenty four election,
Speaker 1: when right before the election, the account Trump fact News
Speaker 1: posted a picture of Harris and Didty, saying, never forget
Speaker 1: how Harris got her start. She's no stranger to Diddy
Speaker 1: parties in Los Angeles either, So this is obviously a
Speaker 1: reference to the common lie hurled at Harris that she
Speaker 1: quote slept her way.
Speaker 2: To the top. But the picture is not even of
Speaker 2: Harris and Diddy. It's of Harris and talk show host
Speaker 2: Montell Williams, who Kamala Harris actually did date twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: Montell Williams replied, here they go again, with all black
Speaker 1: people look alike. In September of twenty twenty four, a
Speaker 1: pro Trump meme account on X called the Right to
Speaker 1: Bear Memes posted a doctored version of a photo taken
Speaker 1: by Montell Williams in two thousand and one at a
Speaker 1: charity event The picture is basically like they just put
Speaker 1: Sean Combs's head on William's body. It's like obviously a
Speaker 1: very bad photoshop if you look at it for more
Speaker 1: than five seconds, but it prompted the comment the Ditty
Speaker 1: client list goes all the way to the top, posted
Speaker 1: by red Pill USA, a major pro Trump conspiracy account,
Speaker 1: and it was viewed over a million times on truth
Speaker 1: Social Trump himself reposted and then deleted an image of
Speaker 1: Harris with Ditty's face photoshopped over Montell Williams's with the
Speaker 1: caption Kamala doing the diddy Madam Vice President, have you
Speaker 1: ever been involved or engaged in one of puff Daddy's
Speaker 1: freak offs? He did delete that, thankfully, But this was
Speaker 1: just the beginning of all the disinformation and being spread
Speaker 1: about this case.
Speaker 4: More after a quick break, let's get right back into it.
Speaker 2: So this trial is not being shown on television.
Speaker 1: If you're not physically at the trial or following the
Speaker 1: reporting of somebody who is, you might not have any
Speaker 1: real clue what is happening. So people online can and
Speaker 1: are saying just about anything to capitalize on the clicking
Speaker 1: engagement of this trial.
Speaker 2: Here's a few examples of what I mean.
Speaker 1: One rumor that I saw everywhere online while the trial
Speaker 1: was going on was the claim that prosecutors presented as
Speaker 1: evidence a secret recording of prints exposing Colombes's crimes. The
Speaker 1: rumor said that in Prince's final days alive, he filmed
Speaker 1: the video that said if something happens to me, this
Speaker 1: recording needs to go to.
Speaker 2: The press or the police, either one. This is simply false,
Speaker 2: not true, never happened.
Speaker 1: And we've got to talk about this because typically I
Speaker 1: don't think it's good to amplify random conspiracy theories that
Speaker 1: pop up online, because sometimes it ends up that you're
Speaker 1: just helping a random video that nobody was probably ever
Speaker 1: really going to see anyway. Outside of these niche pockets
Speaker 1: of the Internet get more traction and oxygen, and a
Speaker 1: lot of times that's true. But I wanted to talk
Speaker 1: about this one involving Prince, because this particular conspiracy theory
Speaker 1: was not just staying in one niche corner of the Internet.
Speaker 1: I've seen this particular false claim about Prince all over
Speaker 1: the web, to the point where mainstream news outlets like
Speaker 1: Yahoo had to publish pieces debunking it because they were
Speaker 1: getting so much traction, and I think it reveals a
Speaker 1: lot about why this kind of AI generated conspiracy theory
Speaker 1: content works. They blow up something that has a grain
Speaker 1: of actual truth to it, or something that fits an
Speaker 1: existing pattern or story that we already know or already
Speaker 1: align with, and then project this entire fictional world onto it.
Speaker 1: So in nineteen ninety three, Prince famously changed his name
Speaker 1: from Prince to the artist formerly known as Prince in
Speaker 1: a public dispute over how much control his record label,
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers had over his music. So the grain of
Speaker 1: truth is that Prince was somebody who went up against
Speaker 1: powerful figures in the entertainment industry. So this particular false
Speaker 1: claim really does align with my existing worldview about Prince,
Speaker 1: which is why it works so well. And Prince died
Speaker 1: really suddenly, so of course there will always be conspiracy
Speaker 1: surrounding his death, like maybe he was killed by those
Speaker 1: very same powerful forces that he was trying to call
Speaker 1: out and dismantle. So then when you hear about the
Speaker 1: ways that Diddy, who actually is a powerful force at entertainment,
Speaker 1: used his power to abuse and control others, it makes
Speaker 1: sense why this is the AI conspiracy that really hits
Speaker 1: and takes off and gets traction because at its core
Speaker 1: it has a grain of truth to it, and it
Speaker 1: aligns with the kind of conspiracy that our brains love,
Speaker 1: you know, a story about a beloved figure being taken
Speaker 1: out by a powerful evil force he was trying to
Speaker 1: take down. In fact, I have to admit that when
Speaker 1: I was watching some of these Prince Diddy conspiracy videos
Speaker 1: for this episode, I found myself going from watching it
Speaker 1: critically to at a certain point catching myself almost kind
Speaker 1: of getting lost in the story because the story is
Speaker 1: that good, Like I could see myself sharing this video
Speaker 1: and if I wasn't already tuned into accurate coverage of
Speaker 1: the trial, I m not even believe this actually happened
Speaker 1: in the courtroom, even though it didn't, because it aligned
Speaker 1: so well with my pre existing worldview. And honestly, that's
Speaker 1: what AI and LM's are so good at reflecting our
Speaker 1: own world's back at us, and it seems like that's
Speaker 1: why they were really able to hit a home run
Speaker 1: with this Prince Diddy AI conspiracy theories. So where did
Speaker 1: this Diddy Prince video come from? Well, it came from
Speaker 1: a YouTube channel called what is My Star Wars, which
Speaker 1: posted the video titled Prince's Secret Recording Just Shattered Ditty's Trial.
Speaker 2: Then the video spread to Blue Sky, Facebook threads, TikTok x,
Speaker 2: and other places on YouTube.
Speaker 1: So I took a look at that channel and it
Speaker 1: is essentially very obviously AI generated fan fiction that gets
Speaker 1: so many views.
Speaker 2: They have created video after video after a video falsely
Speaker 2: linking the biggest celebrities to the Combs trial. Most of
Speaker 2: the videos follow the same formula.
Speaker 1: They start with an AI generated voice narrator saying, before
Speaker 1: we begin, viewer discretion is strongly advised. The following is
Speaker 1: for educational and entertainment purposes only. But then in the
Speaker 1: very next sentence, the narrator says, this is the verbatim
Speaker 1: federal courtroom testimony of the Sean Ditty Combs trial, as
Speaker 1: reported by Inner City Press.
Speaker 2: When no, it's not.
Speaker 1: One video called Oprah Fux Ditty claims that Oprah was
Speaker 1: present at one of Ditty's hotel sex sessions and that
Speaker 1: the actress Monique has named Oprah, Tyler Perry and others.
Speaker 2: As being involved. That video has only been up for
Speaker 2: four days and it already has one point.
Speaker 1: Five million views. And again this is pure fiction. None
Speaker 1: of these people testified. None of these people are even
Speaker 1: involved in any of this. As somebody who studies conspiracy
Speaker 1: theory and how they move online, when I look at
Speaker 1: this page, I can sort of immediately clock what's going
Speaker 1: on when you go back a little further in the
Speaker 1: content before switching over to all ditty content. The channel
Speaker 1: was sort of cycling through this format of having a
Speaker 1: public figure in some sort of sad situation. It's generally
Speaker 1: an AI generated image of a sad looking celebrity, and then.
Speaker 2: It'll say the shocking truth about Christopher.
Speaker 1: Walkin seemed to implying that, like something bad is happening
Speaker 1: in his life.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Their early videos seem to have done all right in
Speaker 1: terms of views, but the Diddy videos really hit, so
Speaker 1: of course they're going to keep producing them. And honestly,
Speaker 1: it seems like any celebrity you want dead or alive
Speaker 1: can be mixed up in the Diddy stuff. Elvis, Wendy Williams,
Speaker 1: Whitney Houston, will Smith, according to this channel, have all
Speaker 1: appeared in the courtroom to give explosive testimony. But like
Speaker 1: I said, it's just fan fiction, except in my opinion,
Speaker 1: they're obviously going out of their way to make it
Speaker 1: look real. And it's interesting how they pick celebrities that
Speaker 1: have some level of conspiracy theory kind of around them already,
Speaker 1: folks like Will Smith or Oprah. They pair that with
Speaker 1: an AI generated image of that celebrity looking distraught on
Speaker 1: the stand next to an AI generated Diddy, and.
Speaker 2: People actually believe it.
Speaker 1: I fully expected the comments on these videos to be
Speaker 1: people calling it out as obvious fakes, but no, people
Speaker 1: believe it. In one of these AI generated videos, they
Speaker 1: claim that Samuel L. Jackson took the stand and made
Speaker 1: a bombshell accusation claiming that Diddy groomed Lori Harvey and
Speaker 1: that her stepfather, Steve Harvey, may have played a role
Speaker 1: in serving his stepdaughter up to be abused by Diddy.
Speaker 1: It says, the shocking testimony has sent shockwaves across the
Speaker 1: entertainment industry and social media as the Harvey family's reputation
Speaker 1: is suddenly thrown into question. Now there is a disclaim
Speaker 1: worth at the very bottom that says this content is
Speaker 1: fictional and intended for entertainment purposes only. No verified court
Speaker 1: documents or official statements confirmed these claims, but that doesn't
Speaker 1: stop people in the comment tents from talking about it
Speaker 1: like it's real.
Speaker 2: Here's a few comments.
Speaker 1: I always had this instinctive feeling that something was wrong
Speaker 1: with Steve Harvey, Tyler Perry, Oprah, Kevin Hart, Michael Jackson, T. D.
Speaker 1: Jakes and Martin Lawrence and others. I never understood why
Speaker 1: folks on TV and movies maybe uncomfortable learning this.
Speaker 2: Now I know God gave me this wonderful gift. Here's
Speaker 2: another comment.
Speaker 1: Samuel is a noble brother that appreciates fair game and order.
Speaker 1: To see a colleague sacrifice his own daughter for gain
Speaker 1: with a demonic, cold, calculating monster is an insult to
Speaker 1: our entire culture. No mana should be that thirsty to
Speaker 1: compromise his integrity for money. Steve pimped that girl. Samuel
Speaker 1: is the one millions of us respect. And lastly, quote
Speaker 1: how I wish I could have seen mister Jackson's testimony.
Speaker 1: This could be a movie, and I hate to break
Speaker 1: it to you, but you can't see mister Jackson's testimony
Speaker 1: because it doesn't exist. It never happened. So even when
Speaker 1: the coverage of the trial isn't straight up making up facts,
Speaker 1: it still feels gross. People online are covering this trial.
Speaker 1: At the recapping and Netflix series Friend of the podcast,
Speaker 1: Francesca Ramsey made a great point that creators online are
Speaker 1: rushing to do these breakdowns and coverage for engagement of
Speaker 1: all these salacious details that make it seem with our
Speaker 1: covering a fictional series, not the traumas of somebody else's life.
Speaker 1: It's a bit of a sad commentary on the state
Speaker 1: of our digital media ecosystem, which really does encourage everybody
Speaker 1: to have an opinion, everybody to have a take, but
Speaker 1: in doing so treats real people's lives like stories and
Speaker 1: discourages empathy. And this kind of the fan fiction capturing
Speaker 1: the nation's interest with this trial is not new. It
Speaker 1: started the day that Ditty was arrested. Combs's late ex wife,
Speaker 1: the model kim Porter, died very suddenly in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: Her listed cause of death was pneumonia, but rumors have
Speaker 1: swirled about her death since she died. After Ditty was arrested,
Speaker 1: An LA based producer self published a quote mamoir of
Speaker 1: kim Porter's on Amazon.
Speaker 2: The memoir was full.
Speaker 1: Of pulpy, salacious claims about Sean Combs's past and crimes.
Speaker 1: There are plenty of people breaking it down on TikTok,
Speaker 1: but this memoir is probably completely bogus. The author, who
Speaker 1: calls himself Chris Todd no relation, told Vanity Fair that
Speaker 1: the memoir is based on a flash drive that Kim
Speaker 1: Porter allegedly left behind after her death in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: which also contained, he claims, quote tapes of Ditty with
Speaker 1: celebrities and sexual situations. He said that he received portions
Speaker 1: of the drive from a quote celebrity source who was
Speaker 1: quote very close inside the Kim and Ditty hip hop circle.
Speaker 1: In the Variety interview, Todd said, I'm not doing this
Speaker 1: for the money. I'm the voice for the voiceless, although
Speaker 1: he did acknowledge making a fair bit of money from
Speaker 1: the fake book. He even told Rolling Stone that he
Speaker 1: himself can't be sure if that memoir is real, saying,
Speaker 1: if somebody put my feet to the fire and they
Speaker 1: said life or death, is this book realed? I have
Speaker 1: to say, I don't know.
Speaker 2: But it's real enough to me.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you just got to put it out there. Maybe
Speaker 1: not one hundred percent of the book is true, but
Speaker 1: maybe eighty percent is. That is to get those people
Speaker 1: to come forward and either corroborate or deny the claims,
Speaker 1: and that helps me as an investigator to know the truth.
Speaker 2: So even though the person who published.
Speaker 1: This memoir pretty much says it's probably not true, this
Speaker 1: did not stop the book from shooting to the number
Speaker 1: one spot on Amazon. Eventually, in October twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: after shooting to the number one spot, Amazon pulled it.
Speaker 1: And that really says a lot to me that we
Speaker 1: have a digital culture that really incentivizes just making stuff
Speaker 1: up about something as serious as sex trafficking and sexual
Speaker 1: abuse to make a quick book, whether through sales of
Speaker 1: bogus memoirs or through online engagement through AI generated fan
Speaker 1: fiction that has no grounding in reality. So what's next
Speaker 1: for Ditty? While the trial continues, and according to Rolling Stone,
Speaker 1: Combs's team is already working on a pardon from Trump
Speaker 1: if he's convicted. Several longtime friends and allies of Combs
Speaker 1: have already begun making connections to the Trump team with
Speaker 1: hopes of laying the groundwork for a possible presidential pardon
Speaker 1: if Combs is found guilty on the charges her Rolling Stone,
Speaker 1: Combs's team is hoping to appeal to Trump by drawing
Speaker 1: a comparison between their shared stories two successful businessmen allegedly
Speaker 1: targeted by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New
Speaker 1: York with baseless wink wink accusations of sexual assault. Combs
Speaker 1: and Trump have reportedly maintained a friendly personal relationship for
Speaker 1: over a decade.
Speaker 2: Trump described Combs as.
Speaker 1: Quote a good friend of mine during a twenty twelve
Speaker 1: taping of Celebrity Apprentice and was a regular attendee at
Speaker 1: his birthday parties.
Speaker 2: And you know what, I think it might work.
Speaker 1: I think if Diddy is convicted, I could see a
Speaker 1: world where Trump pardons him. And they just want to
Speaker 1: end by saying, survivors are watching that dig about Cassie
Speaker 1: being a gold digger or somehow inviting her own abuse.
Speaker 1: Cassie probably won't see it online, but you know who will, survivors.
Speaker 1: Survivors are watching, and we're not going to stand for it.
Speaker 1: Got a story about an interesting thing in tech. I
Speaker 1: just want to say hi. You can reach us at
Speaker 1: Hello at tengodi dot com. You can also find transcripts
Speaker 1: for today's episode at tengo doi dot com.
Speaker 2: There Are No Girls on the Internet.
Speaker 1: Was created by me Bridget tod It's a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Unbossed creative Jonathan Strickland is our executive producer.
Speaker 1: Tarry Harrison is our producer and sound engineer. Michael Almato
Speaker 1: is our contributing producer. I'm your host, Bridget Todd. If
Speaker 1: you want to help us grow, rate and review.
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