Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the
Speaker 1: hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm
Speaker 1: Sophie Torver and coming up on today's show, Trouble is
Speaker 1: brewing for Tattle Life as the Snark site comes under threat.
Speaker 1: But first, Tammy Hembro and Matt Szakowski have reportedly had
Speaker 1: a very public spat whilst attending an influencer event at
Speaker 1: the Australian Open.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, Tammy and Matt were gifted VIP tickets by Chemist's
Speaker 1: Warehouse and they saw alongside reality stars Callum Hole and
Speaker 1: Cahn Ong. So, according to a source, Tammy and Matt's
Speaker 1: argument was tense and apparently Tammy was overhear telling Matt
Speaker 1: to get his stuff out of her house. That's pretty
Speaker 1: next level. Something major must have gone down to say
Speaker 1: that in public. Maybe they felt comfortable because they were
Speaker 1: surrounded by other high profile people that they thought that
Speaker 1: the argument wouldn't get out there. Well it has got now,
Speaker 1: and it's gotten out to the Daily Mail of all places.
Speaker 1: And they went as far to quote a source within
Speaker 1: the VIP event who apparently said one thing is for sure.
Speaker 1: The Australian Open won't be having them back next year. Well,
Speaker 1: last week we were talking about how Tammy Henbury wasn't
Speaker 1: even interested in the tennis. She said that she didn't
Speaker 1: really want to watch it and it sounded like it
Speaker 1: was quite boring for it. So maybe she was just
Speaker 1: bored during the game and picked an argument. I mean,
Speaker 1: sometimes when I have to watch the football with my husband,
Speaker 1: I'm like, fuck, what can I do to get this
Speaker 1: off the screen or have an argument? Well, apparently this
Speaker 1: fight was so bad that Tammy ended up flying home
Speaker 1: to the Gold Coast without Matt and he extended his
Speaker 1: trip in Melbourne partying with friends. Well that makes sense
Speaker 1: because I was listening to his podcast the other day
Speaker 1: and he was talking about, Oh, I'm going to this
Speaker 1: Australian Open event and this one, and each time he
Speaker 1: was saying he was bringing his sisters. So maybe Tammy
Speaker 1: was meant to go. Those brands must have been so disappointed. Well,
Speaker 1: these were nine hundred dollars tickets from Chemists warehouse and
Speaker 1: all that they got from it was Tammy saying how
Speaker 1: she doesn't like tennis. And also this huge archer was
Speaker 1: Someone posted an interesting threat in our Facebook community about
Speaker 1: how they've ACKed she'd been put off by the brands
Speaker 1: that invited influencers who were rude and disrespectful to the
Speaker 1: Australian Open. And it's a really fair point because it
Speaker 1: doesn't look good on the brand if you are picking
Speaker 1: these influencers who aren't even interested in being there and
Speaker 1: act up. It sounds like this argument would have been
Speaker 1: very awkward for everyone involved. Because Tammy Hembro shared a
Speaker 1: photo of where she and Matt were sitting with Chemist Warehouse.
Speaker 1: They literally looked like they were sitting on the court.
Speaker 1: I wonder if things got so heated, maybe the tennis
Speaker 1: players were.
Speaker 2: Like, shun the fuck up, they're trying to play.
Speaker 1: There was glass between them and the tennis players.
Speaker 2: Hopefully it was soundproof.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, since this report, we have seen Matt
Speaker 1: and Tammy posting on social media as normal, so it
Speaker 1: seems like it was just aspat.
Speaker 2: I don't think this is marriage ending.
Speaker 1: Do we think that the argument, I know there's a
Speaker 1: bit of a speculation here, but was centered around the
Speaker 1: fact that Matt probably wanted to go out and party
Speaker 1: and be seen at all of these different tennis events,
Speaker 1: and maybe Tammy just wanted to have a quiet.
Speaker 2: Night with her husband.
Speaker 1: I think it more comes down to the fact that
Speaker 1: the honeymoon period is over in this relationship. Well, have
Speaker 1: they ever had a honeymoon period? Because it's been so
Speaker 1: hot and cold, following each other, unfollowing each other. There's
Speaker 1: been so many rumors of arguments and spats. I kind
Speaker 1: of get the vibe they're the sort of couple that
Speaker 1: love having an argument because they just want to make
Speaker 1: up after it.
Speaker 2: I think I reckon, Yeah, because it's exciting.
Speaker 1: And with Matt, I mean, we've already heard him speak
Speaker 1: on his podcast about how his Christmas and New Years
Speaker 1: was a little bit I don't want to say mundane,
Speaker 1: but you know, just a lot of family time. Maybe
Speaker 1: these arguments injective bit of excitement into their relationship.
Speaker 2: Sounds so toxic.
Speaker 1: Well, he did speak in a recent podcast about some
Speaker 1: of his aims for twenty twenty five when one of
Speaker 1: those was getting into reading.
Speaker 2: Let's have a listen to what Matt said.
Speaker 3: I've actually taken up reading you. Yeah, So I don't
Speaker 3: know if I listened this on the Goals for twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five, but I want to read. So he went
Speaker 3: into a bookshop the other day. Yeah, the kids got
Speaker 3: some books, and then I was standing around like their section,
Speaker 3: looking at books with them, and I saw Goosebumps.
Speaker 2: And I was like, old, classic, old fave.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I used to read him when I was a kid,
Speaker 3: And I just picked one up and I looked at
Speaker 3: her and I was like, they'd already taken off. Actually
Speaker 3: I was still reading the blurb and looking at it,
Speaker 3: and they'd already paid and walked out, and I was like,
Speaker 3: oh fuck, I'll get this. So I ran up to
Speaker 3: the thing, got it. And then I caught up with
Speaker 3: them and they're like, oh what we where were you?
Speaker 3: And I was like, I've got a book I'm going
Speaker 3: to read. So I've been reading.
Speaker 2: That, so it's a kid's book essentially.
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, sure.
Speaker 2: I couldn't believe when he said Goosebumps.
Speaker 1: And I don't mean to shame him, because it's great
Speaker 1: that he's getting back into reading. And he did make
Speaker 1: a comment about how Willie now as well pick up
Speaker 1: where he left off because that was the last time
Speaker 1: he read when he was a teenager. In his defense,
Speaker 1: I wonder if it is a way for him to
Speaker 1: connect with his steps on Wolf, because that's the sort
Speaker 1: of reading level that Goosebumps is at I mean in
Speaker 1: saying that I loved reading Goosebumps back in the day,
Speaker 1: that was some scary shit. All the best bit is
Speaker 1: his mum was so excited that he was getting back
Speaker 1: into reading that she went down to a thrift shop
Speaker 1: and bought him like eight Goosebump books.
Speaker 3: Continued on page five.
Speaker 1: I mean, I shall just rise above it that this
Speaker 1: thing affects me and.
Speaker 3: Close.
Speaker 1: Forty seven influencer snark site tatle Life shocked its users
Speaker 1: by announcing it was closing down due to recent threats.
Speaker 1: The anonymous gossip forum, which has been touted as the
Speaker 1: most toxic corner of the Internet, has become one of
Speaker 1: the most visited websites in Australia and the UK, averaging
Speaker 1: eighty four million visits a year. Its owner is set
Speaker 1: to be hit hard by the website's demise, losing an
Speaker 1: estimated one million dollars in annual ads revenue. Now, Sophie,
Speaker 1: this story has had a few twists and turns. How
Speaker 1: did things kick off last week? Well, last Wednesday, tato
Speaker 1: Life sentence uses into a spin when they realized they
Speaker 1: could no longer access the website. So the website was
Speaker 1: down for several hours and when it returned, it was
Speaker 1: operating under a new name. So the new name was
Speaker 1: eight Cafe, and many of Tattle's long standing members were
Speaker 1: panicking because they had been automatically logged out of their
Speaker 1: accounts and they were struggling to access the forum because
Speaker 1: they either couldn't remember their password or their email addresses
Speaker 1: that they signed up with. And this is because in
Speaker 1: the past, members were told not to link their personal
Speaker 1: email addresses with their Tattle accounts, and that is so
Speaker 1: that they could keep their identities concealed. And for four years,
Speaker 1: the website hasn't been accepting new members. The only way
Speaker 1: you can join is if some long standing member gives
Speaker 1: you a code. I often see a lot of people
Speaker 1: shopping around for the code because it's almost like you're
Speaker 1: joining this exclusive membership. And in my opinion, this process
Speaker 1: has been put in place to stop influencers from having
Speaker 1: any sort of rite or apply or ruining the forum's fun,
Speaker 1: and I think it's also made a lot of the
Speaker 1: long term Tattle members feel very powerful now. When it
Speaker 1: came to the rebrand, there wasn't much positive feedback, so
Speaker 1: the owner tried to spin it and said that they
Speaker 1: renamed it eight Cafe to be more of a generic
Speaker 1: name because they thought that Tattle was too synonymous with
Speaker 1: gossiping and it wasn't meant to be about gossiping. And
Speaker 1: the general consensus was that the new name actually sounds
Speaker 1: a lot like the Hate Cafe, which really contradicts the
Speaker 1: message that the owner was putting out in the first place.
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone has been buying this narrative that
Speaker 1: the owner has been putting out there. And when she
Speaker 1: was addressing the rebrand and the reason for registration remaining closed,
Speaker 1: she said, we didn't really have much choice, as we've
Speaker 1: never allowed any content that gets into the gray areas
Speaker 1: of harassment and abuse. She continued, where reorganizing things and
Speaker 1: will shortly be allowing new members to post on the
Speaker 1: non problematic threads. I'd like to know what threads they are.
Speaker 1: This is just textbook gas lighting. This website has earned
Speaker 1: itself the title of the most toxic corner of the Internet,
Speaker 1: and then to claim that Tattle doesn't allow users to
Speaker 1: go into the gray areas of harassment abuse, it's just laughable. Literally,
Speaker 1: nothing on this forum is off limits. I have never
Speaker 1: seen any moderators step in to address any of these
Speaker 1: posts that are crossing a line. Well, they also claim
Speaker 1: that you can report posts, and I have done that
Speaker 1: in the past. I've reported something, I've sent them an email,
Speaker 1: I've demanded people take something down.
Speaker 2: Never a response.
Speaker 1: Harassment is literally encouraged on this website. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of delight taken in scrutinizing women's appearances and their parenting
Speaker 1: and relationships and mental health. And what makes Taddle particularly
Speaker 1: dangerous is that its users are completely anonymous, well just
Speaker 1: like the owner, so she goes under the name Helen,
Speaker 1: it's clearly not her own name. And if you're so
Speaker 1: confident in what you're doing, why do you have to
Speaker 1: be anonymous? Shouldn't you be screaming from the rooftops that
Speaker 1: this is your website. It's pretty obvious why she's anonymous,
Speaker 1: because there would be so many influencers out there who
Speaker 1: would want to serve this woman with cease and assist
Speaker 1: or defamation legal letters, but they are unable to because
Speaker 1: of this anonymity of the website. It's quite clear that
Speaker 1: this rebrand didn't just come about because the name Tattle
Speaker 1: was no longer reflective of the content on the website.
Speaker 1: Like the owner claimed, this has come about due to
Speaker 1: legal threats. And interestingly, when Tattle returned under the new name,
Speaker 1: a disclaimer had been added on the bottom of each
Speaker 1: page and it read all posts are user's opinions and
Speaker 1: does not necessarily reflect the opinion of eight cafe. Now.
Speaker 1: This clearly was an attempt to avoid being sued for defamation,
Speaker 1: and it's very clear that more was happening behind the
Speaker 1: scenes because a day later a farewell message from the
Speaker 1: owner appeared. It read farewell. We believe it's important for
Speaker 1: the public to have an opinion on social media influences,
Speaker 1: as they occupy a unique and largely unregulated space between
Speaker 1: celebrities and everyday individuals wilding significant power. In January twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, we closed registrations after too many users violated
Speaker 1: our rules and thought they could ignore them and create
Speaker 1: a new account. As we said back in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: our hope had always been that this site would become
Speaker 1: unnecessary as governments introduced proper regulations. Unfortunately, recent threats directed
Speaker 1: at members of one of our families have left us
Speaker 1: with no choice but to shut down the site. It
Speaker 1: is simply unfair for them to be impacted by something
Speaker 1: they have zero involvement in. It's quite ironic that the
Speaker 1: owner of this site, which literally encourages hate on a
Speaker 1: daily basis, is trying to take the moral high ground
Speaker 1: with this. Now they're outraged that they're receiving threats.
Speaker 2: There have been influencers that have.
Speaker 1: Been discussed on this forum that have received multiple threats
Speaker 1: and continual harassment. Yeah, and also to act like you're
Speaker 1: some sort of crusader who's merely been holding influences to
Speaker 1: account and fighting for better regulation is just laughable. It
Speaker 1: has always been an unregulated snark site and it has
Speaker 1: been designed to bully and harass people. I think originally
Speaker 1: it might have been set up with the best intention
Speaker 1: to actually hold people to account, but the lack of
Speaker 1: moderation has really injured the credibility of this website. Lack
Speaker 1: of moderation. There's zero moderation, and I mean, as I said,
Speaker 1: I have tried to get defamatory information taken off that
Speaker 1: site down before, and there is no one monitoring it. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I just don't understand how it has lasted
Speaker 1: for the last seven years. And I would love for
Speaker 1: Helen or whoever she is to be publicly named and changed. Well,
Speaker 1: reading between the lines, it sounds like a lawyer or
Speaker 1: some kind of representative of one of the influencers has
Speaker 1: tracked down Helen or Whoever's family members and they've made
Speaker 1: legal threats to these people. The timing is pretty interesting
Speaker 1: because only a few weeks ago we were talking about
Speaker 1: how Zoe Haig was crying on her YouTube video about
Speaker 1: the commentary that she gets on sites like Tattle, and
Speaker 1: she said that she would pay all the money she
Speaker 1: had for a lot of the people who write on
Speaker 1: Tattle to be unmasked.
Speaker 2: Well, a lot of the.
Speaker 1: Members in Tattle started freaking out because they thought that
Speaker 1: maybe the reason it was closing down was due to
Speaker 1: a data breach and that they're in maybe was going
Speaker 1: to be released to the media or just on a
Speaker 1: public speae I saw with Ashley Madison the Daily website.
Speaker 1: So it would actually be such a coup for the
Speaker 1: influences and people discussed on this from the unfortunate thing
Speaker 1: is there are a lot of people that do lurk
Speaker 1: on the site that aren't necessarily active on it. Well,
Speaker 1: this actually happened back in twenty twenty one, so there
Speaker 1: was an anonymous Instagram account called the Detectives, and they
Speaker 1: began revealing suspected Tattle users' identities. So it was this
Speaker 1: collection of volunteers who created the page, and they said
Speaker 1: it was the first time anyone had stood up to
Speaker 1: the Tattle trolls and people were able to submit details
Speaker 1: of suspected bullies for analysis. Wow. It was pretty crazy though,
Speaker 1: because Helen kept having to reassure Tattle Life that people
Speaker 1: on Instagram can't use an app to find your home addresses,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, the Detective's page just disappeared
Speaker 1: one day and Calen claimed it was down to her,
Speaker 1: so she wrote on tattle Life this morning we sent
Speaker 1: an email that was written under careful advice, and shortly
Speaker 1: after the aunt disappeared. So she does seem to wield
Speaker 1: a lot of power. I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: would be shocked if some of the members of Tattle
Speaker 1: were unveiled, because a lot of them would be nurses, teachers, doctors.
Speaker 1: Well that was a bit like that hate page Salty's Day.
Speaker 1: So probably back in twenty twenty there was a snark
Speaker 1: Instagram set up purely targeting Sarah's Day, and somehow the
Speaker 1: woman's identity got unveiled and she was a teacher and
Speaker 1: her boyfriend didn't even know about this account and found out,
Speaker 1: which shows you how much a lot of these people
Speaker 1: have to lose because these are professional people. But it's
Speaker 1: quite interesting because a lot of tattle users don't mind
Speaker 1: going after influencers, workplaces, or sponsorships, like that's something that
Speaker 1: they do. They take it to the next level and
Speaker 1: go outside of the forum and start attacking people's real lives.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, this announcement rocked many Tuttle Life users and they
Speaker 1: were told the site would remain open for users to
Speaker 1: say they're goodbyes, and this seemed really important for many
Speaker 1: of the Tattlers, who over the years have built very
Speaker 1: strong online friendships by bonding over their mutual hate for
Speaker 1: a lot of influencers. One long standing user vout to
Speaker 1: make a tattle Life two point zero and urged users
Speaker 1: to join them there. There was a very mixed response
Speaker 1: in our Facebook community. Majority of the people were like me,
Speaker 1: and they were overjoyed and very relieved that this site
Speaker 1: was finally going to be removed. One listener wrote, to
Speaker 1: be honest, I think this is for the best. There
Speaker 1: was little to no moderation on there, and some of
Speaker 1: it was truly unhinged. It wasn't uncommon for them to
Speaker 1: take aim at the appearance and behavior of influencers, children
Speaker 1: and families who weren't online, and basically docks influences by
Speaker 1: providing hints to real estate listings, whilst another listener said
Speaker 1: words hold so much power. People hiding behind user names
Speaker 1: writing hideous things about strangers is seriously unhinged. No one
Speaker 1: deserves to be bullied. Look at the rate of suicide
Speaker 1: and the impact of mental health and bullying. I'm stoked
Speaker 1: it's gone. It was really interesting for some influencers in
Speaker 1: our Facebook community to also weigh in, so Britney Saunders
Speaker 1: shared her reaction to the closure, saying this may be
Speaker 1: a completely unpopular opinion, but honestly, thank fuck. I've been
Speaker 1: publicly on social media for over ten years and it
Speaker 1: is astonishing the amount of anonymous bullying that I have
Speaker 1: witnessed and how widely accepted it is even in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five. She continued, end anonymous bulling. If people want
Speaker 1: to talk shit about influencers creators, whoever, do it amongst
Speaker 1: your friends, or even better yet, post a video of
Speaker 1: you talking about it to your public social media accounts.
Speaker 1: Food influencer Leaestinis also shared her personal experience with Taddle,
Speaker 1: explaining she received her own thread just before she gave
Speaker 1: birth to her daughter. She wrote the vile commentary when
Speaker 1: I was having a hard time, literally gave me postnatal depression,
Speaker 1: and the words that those people wrote stuck with me
Speaker 1: for almost two years. It hurt so bad that it
Speaker 1: got to the point where I thought my child was
Speaker 1: better off without me because I couldn't keep her from
Speaker 1: vomiting on my clothes or I didn't look well kept
Speaker 1: The last I read on there was someone calling at
Speaker 1: the time my three month old not that cute. I
Speaker 1: felt sick to my stomach. It wasn't just hatred of me,
Speaker 1: it was talking about my daughter's appearance as a baby.
Speaker 1: It killed me inside and I have worked for over
Speaker 1: a year now in therapy because of it. I actually
Speaker 1: had she was going down my spine as you were
Speaker 1: reading that our amy. That was my rerection when I
Speaker 1: first read Lea's comment, because we actually spoke to Leah
Speaker 1: at the end of last year on our Christmas series
Speaker 1: and tatle life got brought up and at the time
Speaker 1: she spoke about it, she didn't sound ultra affected by it,
Speaker 1: because I think she's been doing a lot of work
Speaker 1: in therapy, But just hearing her go into what she
Speaker 1: went through, particularly when she only just had her baby,
Speaker 1: it makes me so sad, and I think it is
Speaker 1: a really good example of why that place needs to
Speaker 1: be shut down and why it is so dangerous.
Speaker 2: The thing that.
Speaker 1: Irritates me is so many members of TAT will say, oh, well,
Speaker 1: the influencers shouldn't read the pages about them, We're just
Speaker 1: holding them accountable. It's like, how is commenting on a
Speaker 1: baby's appearance keeping an influence about it?
Speaker 2: Was disgusting. I'd also like.
Speaker 1: To say to some of them, Okay, so if there
Speaker 1: was a whole four that was public, and as you mentioned,
Speaker 1: it gets millions of hits a year, would you not
Speaker 1: be tempted to go on there and see what people
Speaker 1: were saying about you?
Speaker 2: And that's the thing.
Speaker 1: In our Facebook community, we did have people on the
Speaker 1: other side of things who were quite upset that the
Speaker 1: forum was being taken down, and that was a reason
Speaker 1: that someone gave. They said, isn't it better the snark
Speaker 1: is on a different page, not in the influencers comments
Speaker 1: or dms, and they said the influencer doesn't have to
Speaker 1: go and look at what's being said about them, But
Speaker 1: I would challenge anyone to not go and look up
Speaker 1: what is being said about them on a massive forum.
Speaker 1: But also, just because you have a thread on title
Speaker 1: Life dedicated to you doesn't mean you don't get trolled
Speaker 1: in your dms and comments either. And I actually think
Speaker 1: it's worse to have a dedicated spot because, as we
Speaker 1: have touched on, when the Tatlers heard that the website
Speaker 1: was shutting down, they were fully grieving, like they are
Speaker 1: losing friendships they have bonded over their hate for influencers,
Speaker 1: and it gets to a point where they're egging each
Speaker 1: other on who can make a funnier joke and put
Speaker 1: someone down.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: There was also a listener who said that she was
Speaker 1: disappointed that the site was going because she said, personally,
Speaker 1: I valued reading Tattle. It shed light on issues that
Speaker 1: might otherwives have gone unnoticed. For instance, they exposed the
Speaker 1: TikTok family poisoning their baby long before it was in
Speaker 1: the public arena. They also held certain influences accountable for
Speaker 1: repeated racist comments, and I do think that They've got
Speaker 1: a point in that it has shone a light on
Speaker 1: some important issues that may have gone unnoticed, But in
Speaker 1: saying that, the nasty, heinous, hideous comments outshadow.
Speaker 2: All of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and tattle Life isn't the only place where people
Speaker 1: comment on influencers. There are a lot of subreddit threads
Speaker 1: where people hold influences to account. I mean again, they
Speaker 1: also involve a lot of bullying, but I think they're
Speaker 1: much better regulated and moderated. Again, I'm not across every
Speaker 1: single Reddit sub thread, but I think that a lot
Speaker 1: of people are like, oh, I have to go on
Speaker 1: Reddit and they moderate everything now. Unfortunately, the farewell was
Speaker 1: short lived. Twenty four hours later, the owner of tattle
Speaker 1: Life changed her mind. She shared a post saying, after
Speaker 1: further discussions yet late into the night for some and
Speaker 1: all afternoon for others, we have decided to deal with
Speaker 1: the threats with legal action. As you will appreciate, we
Speaker 1: won't be discussing the situation as it concerns family members
Speaker 1: with no connection to tattle. All matters are with our
Speaker 1: legal team, it continued. Once again, we apologize for the
Speaker 1: stress of the last couple of days and hope to
Speaker 1: see you all back on your favorite threads. Please post
Speaker 1: on topic on the threads and ignore the whole situation
Speaker 1: while it's being dealt with as to not jeopardize it.
Speaker 1: The owner clearly didn't like that users were trying to
Speaker 1: start up their own forums, as she warned, promoting groups
Speaker 1: elsewhere will get a ban or posting to announce your
Speaker 1: leaving will as it also helps no one. If we
Speaker 1: ever do close the site for good, it will be
Speaker 1: left live to let.
Speaker 2: People say their goodbyers.
Speaker 1: It really rubbed me up the wrong way how she
Speaker 1: said we won't be discussing the situation as it concerns
Speaker 1: family members with no connection to tattle. Now, that has
Speaker 1: never stopped you from allowing hate towards family members of
Speaker 1: influencers or public figures who have nothing to do with
Speaker 1: being in the.
Speaker 2: Public eye being discussed.
Speaker 1: I just hate how she's on her high horse about
Speaker 1: it all, and I really don't understand how you can
Speaker 1: actually seek legal action when you're an anonymous owner and
Speaker 1: you don't want your identity exposed. Because the founder of
Speaker 1: taddle Life goes by the pseudonym Helen McDougall. Now, disturbingly,
Speaker 1: when you look into it, Helen McDougall is the name
Speaker 1: of a Scottish mistress from the eighteen hundreds whose partner
Speaker 1: was charged with grave Robbins and Helen also ended up
Speaker 1: being charged with the crimes. Now, over the years, there
Speaker 1: has been a lot of speculation around who Helen actually is,
Speaker 1: and one widely held belief that I have to say
Speaker 1: is unfounded is that Helen is the best friend of
Speaker 1: one of the most discussed influencers on the site. Some
Speaker 1: other top guesses as to who she is is that
Speaker 1: she either has her own beauty business, works for the
Speaker 1: Prime Minister, has friends in influential places, lives in France,
Speaker 1: has a toy boy husband or a tech with husble,
Speaker 1: or is just an absolute miserable individual that is living
Speaker 1: in the basement of a parent's ha been go. But
Speaker 1: I think that Helen's identity is not far away from
Speaker 1: being exposed. Clearly someone has got her in real name. Well.
Speaker 1: She has only ever given one interview during the forum's
Speaker 1: seven year reign, and that was to lime Goss, which
Speaker 1: is a gossip site affiliated with Tattle Life, and Helen
Speaker 1: described Tattle as a space for reasonable critique of public figures.
Speaker 1: She said it isn't trolling as it gives people some
Speaker 1: way to comment about people that choose to become a
Speaker 1: public figure and broadcast their private life to make money.
Speaker 1: She also explained that she launched Tattle because she said
Speaker 1: so many people were just brazenly breaking the guidelines for adverts. Now,
Speaker 1: the reason that Helen is not backing down and is
Speaker 1: choosing to fight against these threats is because she stands
Speaker 1: to lose a significant salary if Tattle is forced to
Speaker 1: shut up shops. So, this site has been running since
Speaker 1: twenty eight and in that time it has become one
Speaker 1: of the most visited sites in Australia and the UK,
Speaker 1: and starts show that they rack up forty two point
Speaker 1: three million visits in the space of just six months.
Speaker 1: And they use Google ad Sends to place ads on
Speaker 1: the site. Oh the ads are so bad as well,
Speaker 1: Like they're not small ads. They literally like if you're
Speaker 1: scrolling on the site, it takes up the whole window.
Speaker 1: That's why I don't understand how no one's been able
Speaker 1: to serve them with legal letters, because clearly their Google
Speaker 1: ad Sense account would have to be attached linked to someone.
Speaker 1: But it's probably just like, well, Google's not going to
Speaker 1: provide that information. I'm more thinking of the address they
Speaker 1: give to get the ad sense mail sent to you,
Speaker 1: because normally Google will send you an actual letter to say, oh,
Speaker 1: this is how much you made. Well, it'll shock you
Speaker 1: even more because in twenty twenty one it was estimated
Speaker 1: that those terrible ads actually generate Tattle more than half
Speaker 1: a million Australian dollars in ADS revenue over a six
Speaker 1: month period. So Helen is making approximately one million Australian
Speaker 1: dollars a year from the forum. Well, probably more because
Speaker 1: of three years ago, So surely it's only gone up.
Speaker 1: I love in the interview how she said it's a
Speaker 1: place to discuss people who have put themselves in the
Speaker 1: public eye to make money. It's like, well, you're making
Speaker 1: money off this website, so why can't we hold you
Speaker 1: accountable for the views that you have on your website
Speaker 1: that you make money off.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: I also find it ironic that she supposedly set up
Speaker 1: this website to call out influencers who weren't disclosing their
Speaker 1: ads and the work that they do. Yet she is
Speaker 1: not transparent with the Tattlers about her finances. A she
Speaker 1: clearly has her own financial interest at stake here, and
Speaker 1: she is making a significant amount of money for dragging
Speaker 1: people's names through you that they don't have the money
Speaker 1: to pay proper moderators. Apparently, that's the thing that I
Speaker 1: find most shocking. If you're making over a million dollars
Speaker 1: a year off a website, do you not have the
Speaker 1: responsibility to hire staff to ensure that posts don't cross
Speaker 1: the line legally and ethically. I have never seen one
Speaker 1: post be moderated or shut down. The size of that
Speaker 1: audience also makes me feel very uncomfortable for Helen because
Speaker 1: if her identity is exposed and people are able to
Speaker 1: sue her for defamation, a lot of the time the
Speaker 1: figure that they come up for reputational damage is based
Speaker 1: on how many people viewed it. So if you're getting
Speaker 1: forty three million viewers to your website a year, that's
Speaker 1: a hell of a lot of a paper. It also
Speaker 1: makes sense as to why she's been able to shut
Speaker 1: down attempts because in twenty twenty one, an influencer called
Speaker 1: em Sheldon gave evidence before a parliamentary committee calling for
Speaker 1: the site to be taken down, and this seemed to
Speaker 1: ruffle feathers at tatle life in twenty twenty, there was
Speaker 1: also a petition to close Tuttle, which was signed by
Speaker 1: sixty three thousand people, and there have been a lot
Speaker 1: of questions over whether users' identities were safe as well.
Speaker 1: So she's had a few headaches, but she's always been
Speaker 1: able to use the money that she's made off the
Speaker 1: website to defend herself legally. Well, you can see that
Speaker 1: she's rattled because the quick name changed is something bizarre
Speaker 1: like eight CAAF. I mean that highlighted how panicked she
Speaker 1: actually was, the backflip and saying we're closing down now
Speaker 1: we're not. I think Tattle's days are numbered well in
Speaker 1: terms of this name change, do we think that she
Speaker 1: was trying to quickly delete the old website? In terms
Speaker 1: of she's been sued for defamation? Fuck, I better get
Speaker 1: rid of it all. Let me try and get everyone
Speaker 1: across to this new website while I delete all of
Speaker 1: the files from the old one. Potentially screenshots exist though well.
Speaker 1: In Australia, there are new rules that state that people
Speaker 1: who have forums or Facebook communities they are responsible for
Speaker 1: what people post on there. So if someone writes something defamatory,
Speaker 1: as the owner, you have the responsibility to either moderate
Speaker 1: the comment or you could get sued because you are
Speaker 1: responsible for that comment being up there. It's the same
Speaker 1: for this site. There is clearly a lot going on
Speaker 1: behind the scenes that we're not privy too. One thing
Speaker 1: that I really hope to see out of this is
Speaker 1: Tattle Life's owner's identity revealed, because I think that that
Speaker 1: will open up a whole new kettle of fish for her. Legally,
Speaker 1: I think if this ship is going down, a lot
Speaker 1: of people are going down with it, and there are
Speaker 1: going to be members who are exposed potentially via what
Speaker 1: could have been a data breach, and this is going
Speaker 1: to have huge ramifications. Well, that is all we've got
Speaker 1: time for today. Thank you for listening to another episode
Speaker 1: of Outspoken. If you do like this show, please leave
Speaker 1: us a review. This podcast was recorded on the traditional
Speaker 1: land of the Ghana people of the Adelaide Planes.
Speaker 2: We pay respect to elders past and present.