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Speaker 1: Hey, y'all, just a quick heads up. This episode contains

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Speaker 1: mentions of rape. There Are No Girls on the Internet

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Speaker 1: as a production of My Heart Radio and Unbust Creative.

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Speaker 1: I'm Bridget Todd, and this is There Are No Girls

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Speaker 1: on the Internet. So we spent the last year having

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Speaker 1: conversations about the harm that myths and disinformation can cause

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Speaker 1: in our communities. And I always like to keep those

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Speaker 1: conversations really centered around institutions because as no, the spread

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Speaker 1: of false claims online is systemic. It isn't usually about

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Speaker 1: one person. It's usually about a system that empowers that

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Speaker 1: person to spread dangerouslies and amplify them. But sometimes one

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Speaker 1: person really does need to be called out. Can you

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Speaker 1: guess who it is? Let's talk about Nicki Minaj. So

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Speaker 1: here's what's going on this week. Fans asked Nicki Minaj

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Speaker 1: why she wasn't going to the metallup, and she tweeted

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Speaker 1: that she wasn't going because the MECALA required vaccinations from COVID.

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Speaker 1: She tweeted, if I get vaccinated, it won't be for

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Speaker 1: the met It'll be once I feel I've done enough research.

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Speaker 1: I'm working on that now. In the meantime, my loves

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Speaker 1: be safe, wear a mask with two strings that gripped

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Speaker 1: your head and face. Now, when folks on Twitter started

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Speaker 1: pushing back, she tweeted my cousin and Trinidad won't get

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Speaker 1: the vaccine because his friend got it and became impotent,

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Speaker 1: his testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from

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Speaker 1: getting married, and now the girl called up the wedding.

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Speaker 1: So just prey on it and make sure that you're

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Speaker 1: comfortable with your decision, not bullied. This is when all

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Speaker 1: hell broke loose. Trinidad Health minister even had to step

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Speaker 1: in and say that this is not true and that

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Speaker 1: there were no reports of impotence or swollen testicles after

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Speaker 1: having had the COVID nineteen vaccine. It isn't even a

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Speaker 1: known side effect. And his response really reveals a big

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Speaker 1: part about why this information is actually so dangerous at

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Speaker 1: a time when COVID is impacting this community hard. Their

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Speaker 1: Health minister had to take time from his research and

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Speaker 1: work to respawn to completely untrue claims that Nicki minaj

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Speaker 1: irresponsibly spread to her over twenty million followers. Here's what

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Speaker 1: he had to say in a press conference. There has

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Speaker 1: been no such reported either side effect or adverse event.

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Speaker 1: It wasted over time yesterday trying to track down because

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Speaker 1: we take all these claims seriously. Now he's articulating one

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Speaker 1: of the real costs of misinformation. It takes up so

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Speaker 1: much oxygen in the room. It means that time spent

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Speaker 1: that should be focusing on real threats that exist during

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Speaker 1: a global pandemic has to be wasted and diverted to

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Speaker 1: debunking lies and false claims. Dr Fauci even weighed in saying,

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Speaker 1: I'm not blaming her for anything, but she should be

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Speaker 1: thinking twice about propagating information that really has no basis

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Speaker 1: except as a one off anecdote, and that's not what

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Speaker 1: science is all about. So basically, as pretty much everybody

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Speaker 1: learned in middle school, if somebody tells you a story

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Speaker 1: that starts with my cousin's friend, whatever you're about to

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Speaker 1: hear is probably bullshit. Nikki later went to Instagram to

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Speaker 1: say that she was locked out of her Twitter account,

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Speaker 1: implying that it was because she was just asking questions

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Speaker 1: about the vaccine. But let's be real, she was not

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Speaker 1: just asking questions, and really pay attention to how expertly

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Speaker 1: she obscured what she actually did on Twitter, and it

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Speaker 1: makes it seem like the powers that be are trying

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Speaker 1: to silence her for just asking innocent questions about the vaccine.

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Speaker 1: But that's not what she was doing at all. She

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Speaker 1: was repeating a false claim about the vaccine leading to

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Speaker 1: swollen testicles and impotence to twenty million people. Repeating false

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Speaker 1: claims and just asking questions are two completely different things.

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Speaker 1: So we know that there are two big groups who

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Speaker 1: are eligible for the COVID nineteen vaccine but haven't yet

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Speaker 1: gotten it. You've got your die hard anti vactors who

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Speaker 1: are pretty much unlikely to ever be vaccinated no matter what,

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Speaker 1: and people who are not necessarily traditionally anti vax but

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Speaker 1: maybe have questions or just hesitant about the vaccine. And

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Speaker 1: that second group is who experts agreed that we should

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Speaker 1: be focusing on right now to encourage them to get vaccinated,

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Speaker 1: because they're actually movable. So Nikki's tweets are really endangering

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Speaker 1: that second group because they're gonna hear her completely untrue,

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Speaker 1: now viral claim based on a one off anecdote about

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Speaker 1: the vaccine side effects and think, hmm, maybe I shouldn't

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Speaker 1: get this vaccine after all if it's causing swollen balls

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Speaker 1: and impotence. And this is also where I think fan

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Speaker 1: culture can really play a part in propping up and

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Speaker 1: spreading misinformation. Some of you all may or may not

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Speaker 1: know Nicki Minaj has a very intense fan base called

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Speaker 1: the Barbs and for every black woman scientist and public

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Speaker 1: health professional who was responding to her COVID nineteen tweets

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Speaker 1: offering to walk her through the vaccine research, and there

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Speaker 1: were actually quite a few. You know, our community really

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Speaker 1: showed up to call this sister in. There were plenty

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Speaker 1: of fans cheering Nikki on, thanking her for quote going

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Speaker 1: against the establishment. Her tweets even one Nikki praise from

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Speaker 1: known bad actors and disinformation super spreaders like Tucker Carlson

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Speaker 1: and Candice Owens. And you know, when people like Hannis

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Speaker 1: Owens are on your side, something is up, like it's

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Speaker 1: time to rethink. And Nikki, for her part, was really

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Speaker 1: fanning the flame of all this on social media. She

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Speaker 1: tweeted a jokey little poll that asked people to rank

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Speaker 1: which vaccine they liked better, and offered to connect late

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Speaker 1: night TV show host Jimmy Kimmel with her cousin's friend

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Speaker 1: for the right price, and this is almost well. I

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Speaker 1: didn't want to talk about this at all. No, not

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Speaker 1: just because I'm afraid of the barbs, but because it

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Speaker 1: turns into a spectacle, and that initial untrue claim gets

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Speaker 1: more and more powerful because it just gets more and

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Speaker 1: more engagement. But I actually suspect this is kind of

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Speaker 1: what Nicky wants because just a few days before Nikki

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Speaker 1: made these tweets about the COVID vaccine, Nicki Minaj's husband,

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Speaker 1: Kenneth Petty, pled guilty to failure to register as a

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Speaker 1: sex offender after he moved from New York to California

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Speaker 1: as a result of being convicted a first degree attempted

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Speaker 1: rape in New York in April of n In this case,

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Speaker 1: he put guilty to the first degree attempt at rape

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Speaker 1: charge and served four years in a New York state prison.

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Speaker 1: His victim said that in Petty raped her at knife

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Speaker 1: point when they were both sixteen. Now, last month, his

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Speaker 1: victims sued both Nicki Minaj and her husband, saying that

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Speaker 1: she'd had to move multiple times because both Nikki and

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Speaker 1: her husband have been harassing her, trying to force her

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Speaker 1: to recant her account of the incident. So this actually

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Speaker 1: gets pretty dark. The New York Times has a really

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Speaker 1: in depth piece about what happened that you can read

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Speaker 1: in the show description. But the allegations in the suit

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Speaker 1: are troubling and really damning, not just for her husband,

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Speaker 1: who was convicted of attempted rape, but also for Nikki,

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Speaker 1: who the victim says offered her half a million dollars

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Speaker 1: if she recanted. She also says that Nikki offered to

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Speaker 1: send a happy birthday video to her teenage daughter quote

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Speaker 1: as a bonus. She also accuses Nikki up lying to

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Speaker 1: her millions of followers about the incident. The whole thing

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Speaker 1: just sounds really awful. So it's pretty interesting that in

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Speaker 1: a week where big news is breaking about Nikki's husband's

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Speaker 1: guilty plea in connection to his rape conviction, that we're

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Speaker 1: all talking about her tweets about COVID misinformation. And that's

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Speaker 1: really the power of misinformation, how it can be weaponized

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Speaker 1: so easily and so effectively, It spread so quickly and

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Speaker 1: can become so powerful that it's all anyone is talking about,

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Speaker 1: and what we should be talking about. It's all the

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Speaker 1: people who will be harm because they were misled by

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Speaker 1: dangerous and irresponsible false claims, got a story about an

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Speaker 1: interesting thing in tech, or just want to say hi?

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Speaker 1: You can be us at Hello at tangodi dot com.

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Speaker 1: You can also find transcripts for today's episode at tangdi

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Speaker 1: dot com. There Are No Girls on the Internet was

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Speaker 1: created by me Bridget Todd. It's a production of iHeart

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Speaker 1: Radio and Unboss creative Jonathan Strickland as our executive producer.

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Speaker 1: Terry Harrison is our producer and sound engineer. Michael Amato

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Speaker 1: is our contributing producer. I'm your host, Bridget Todd. If

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Speaker 1: you want to help us grow, rate and review us

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Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts. For more podcasts from I heeart Radio,

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Speaker 1: check out the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever

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Speaker 1: you get your podcasts.