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Speaker 1: We want to issue a trigger warning as this episode

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Speaker 1: discusses animal cruelty and child exploitation. Hello and welcome to Outspoken.

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Speaker 1: On today's show, we are counting down the top five

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Speaker 1: influencer scandals of twenty twenty three. God, there have been

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Speaker 1: some huge scandals this year. I can't wait to get

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Speaker 1: into them before we do, though, I hope that everyone

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Speaker 1: had an amazing Christmas with their family and friends. It

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Speaker 1: is depressing that Christmas is over. I have been speaking

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Speaker 1: now for weeks about how it's just gone so quickly.

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Speaker 1: This whole year has gone quickly. I can't believe there's

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Speaker 1: only a few more days left of twenty twenty three. Oh,

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Speaker 1: it is crazy. Particularly when I was reflecting what's actually

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Speaker 1: happened in the influencer space this year, it was actually

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Speaker 1: hard to pick five top scandals, and a lot of them.

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Speaker 1: I was like, oh, that only happened a couple of

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Speaker 1: months ago, but it was back in January or February.

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Speaker 1: Let's start the countdown. Now, coming in at number five

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Speaker 1: is the Karna Irby photoshopping debacle. So this happened back

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Speaker 1: in May when an American sloper sluthor count run by

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Speaker 1: John Dawesy accused the body positivity influencer of editing her

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Speaker 1: body on Instagram. Now, she was labeled a hypocrite because

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Speaker 1: her whole social media platform is based on embracing your body,

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Speaker 1: and she even urges her followers not to edit their

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Speaker 1: own photos. This story was massive, particularly because Instagram watchdog

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Speaker 1: account Influence Updates got dragged into the drama. So, like usual,

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Speaker 1: she picked up on the story and reshared the real

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Speaker 1: to her account. Absolute chaos followed. So it turned out

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Speaker 1: that Karna allegedly sent both John and Influencer updates AU

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Speaker 1: a cease and desist letter demanding they remove the content

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Speaker 1: before blocking them. The best bit is that Karina wrote

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Speaker 1: crease and desist rather than cease and desist. Look, I

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Speaker 1: wouldn't quite say the Influencer Updates was dragged into this drama.

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Speaker 1: She was quite happy to report on it. But it's

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Speaker 1: quite funny the turn of events suddenly when these pages

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Speaker 1: start reporting that they have been sent legal letters and

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Speaker 1: it becomes part of the story. Well, I don't think

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Speaker 1: she was expecting the backlash that occurred because she simply

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Speaker 1: just reshared the reel. It wasn't like she was further

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Speaker 1: commenting on it. She was just aring it to her audience. Now.

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Speaker 1: Rather than backing down, John used the moment to call

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Speaker 1: Karina out for more alleged photoshopping. It was then time

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Speaker 1: for Karina to release a statement, so she admitted to

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Speaker 1: editing her photos in the past and said that she

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Speaker 1: suffers from mild body dysmorphia. Things didn't end there, so

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Speaker 1: Karna then enlisted the help of a lawyer who sent

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Speaker 1: John the most bizarre legal letter I've ever read. It

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Speaker 1: sounded completely unprofessional and very highly emotive. For instance, one

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Speaker 1: of the lines read, it is one thing to call

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Speaker 1: my client out for photoshopping photos and being hypocritical. It

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Speaker 1: is another to obsess over my client, pick a public

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Speaker 1: fight with her, and encourage others to bully and incite

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Speaker 1: hate towards her. The letter then oddly also confirmed the

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Speaker 1: original claims that Dawsy made, stating to be frank my

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Speaker 1: client gently photoshopping photos, not immediately owning up to it,

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Speaker 1: and responding in a way that suggests the conduct you

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Speaker 1: complained about was old. Behavior does not deserve the vitual

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Speaker 1: your repeated videos and aggressive hate campanes continue to incite.

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Speaker 1: Well done on reading that out, because it was a

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Speaker 1: very long run on sense. It was a bit of

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Speaker 1: a struggle. Yeah. Now, John ended up enlisting the free

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Speaker 1: service of an American lawyer who absolutely schooled Karna's Gold

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Speaker 1: Coast lawyer in Australian defamation law. Now he referred to

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Speaker 1: the original legal letter as a prank cease and assistance

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Speaker 1: that it obviously must have been sent in jest. He

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Speaker 1: also labeled Karina's claims as farcical and said the lawyer

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Speaker 1: had failed to include any legal authority to demonstrate how

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Speaker 1: Karina was entitled to relief in the Federal Court of Australia. Now,

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Speaker 1: this line was my favorite bit, he wrote. Rest assured

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Speaker 1: I've at least convinced him that it was certainly not

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Speaker 1: some impulsive, ham fisted attempt to bully an individual solely

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Speaker 1: because of his well known efforts to shed lights on

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Speaker 1: the Charlatans ramp it throughout the fitness industry. After all,

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Speaker 1: as lawyers, you and I both know that would be

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Speaker 1: flagrantly unconstitutional. I love that people are finally hitting back

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Speaker 1: at these bullshit legal letters that are being sent out

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Speaker 1: by influencers, because quite frankly, most of the time they

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Speaker 1: are not worth the paper that they are written. On. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but I'm actually surprised though that these lawyers will even

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Speaker 1: send them out, because it's quite embarrassing for this legal

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Speaker 1: firm to put their name to it. No, it's all

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Speaker 1: about threatening people most of the time. There's no legal

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Speaker 1: substance to these letters that are being sent out, and

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Speaker 1: it's just in a way to try and rinse people

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Speaker 1: of any money. Yeah, but this one was written in

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Speaker 1: such an unprofessional way. It wasn't evenly a motive, wasn't it. Now.

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Speaker 1: As for Influencer updates AU, she ended up removing the

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Speaker 1: real and announce she was taking a break from public

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Speaker 1: posting and would only share updates to her paying close

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Speaker 1: friends list. This was clearly the straw that broke the

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Speaker 1: camel's back, because Amber, the owner of Influencer updates AU,

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Speaker 1: then went on to say that this was the sign

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Speaker 1: that she needed to make the decision to change the

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Speaker 1: page over to a subscriber sort of format, and she

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Speaker 1: felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

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Speaker 1: Since then, she has been posting constant updates to her

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Speaker 1: close friends list, but she has returned to publicly posting

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Speaker 1: feed posts now, Sophie, I feel like this one has

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Speaker 1: a special place in your heart. Coming in at number

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Speaker 1: four is Lily Brown and her smelly pajamas. So back

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Speaker 1: in August, Lily gave influences a masterclass on how not

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Speaker 1: to respond to criticism. So it all started when her

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Speaker 1: sleepwear line She'll, issued an apology to customers after receiving

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Speaker 1: complaints that their latest pajama range had an unusual odor.

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Speaker 1: So in an email to affected customers, the brand stated

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Speaker 1: that the unfamiliar scent was caused by an eco die

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Speaker 1: used in manufacturing. And if you're wondering, well, what did

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Speaker 1: those pajamas smell like? One of our listeners wrote in

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Speaker 1: alleging the chill was stinky, Let me tell you that

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Speaker 1: it smelt like boiled egg after you peel it. Best

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Speaker 1: way to describe it geez. I could not imagine wanting

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Speaker 1: to sleep in that sort of scent. The funniest thing

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Speaker 1: was that in this email that they sent out to

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Speaker 1: customers alerting them of what had happened, they were trying

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Speaker 1: to come up with a remedy of how to get

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Speaker 1: rid of it, and they said, oh, you've got to

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Speaker 1: wash it a number of times. In this particular solution,

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Speaker 1: it was in white vas and buikarb soda and to me,

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Speaker 1: I always see this as a remedy to make things

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Speaker 1: smell better, but whenever I've used it, it actually makes things

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Speaker 1: smell worse. Yeah. A few days later, Lily then jumped

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Speaker 1: in her stories to finally address the matter personally and said,

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Speaker 1: I think we're close to cracking how to get rid

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Speaker 1: of this smell. So this smell must have been so

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Speaker 1: pungent that even this proposed solution did not work. It

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Speaker 1: reminds me of that episode of Seinfeld when that guy's

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Speaker 1: bo attaches itself to the car. Now, two options were

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Speaker 1: then provided to customers. Those who wanted to keep their

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Speaker 1: smelly pajamas were told they could get fifty percent store credit,

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Speaker 1: while those who wanted to return their pjs could get

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Speaker 1: one hundred percent store credit. However, the option of a

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Speaker 1: full refund was omitted. Now we ended up getting dragged

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Speaker 1: into the drama after we merely reported on the facts

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Speaker 1: of this story in an Instagram reel. So after that,

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Speaker 1: Lily DM, thus demanding that we take the video down.

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Speaker 1: When we declined, she publicly commented on the video, calling

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Speaker 1: it fake news and claimed we slanted her name and

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Speaker 1: her business. She also said not issuing refunds would be

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Speaker 1: against the law. There was a lot of back and forth,

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Speaker 1: but essentially Lily ended up confirming the pajamas were in

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Speaker 1: fact faulty. She also said that the option of a

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Speaker 1: refund was always available to customers, and it was stated

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Speaker 1: on the website. But I personally found this to be

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Speaker 1: quite deceptive because when the original letter came out alerting

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Speaker 1: customers to the issue, they only offered store credit. They

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Speaker 1: didn't say that any exchanges were possible, so they assumed

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Speaker 1: that the consumer knew that legally they had the right

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Speaker 1: to an exchange. That's what Lily said, So she said,

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Speaker 1: all consumers know they are entitled to a full refund,

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Speaker 1: so there was no point including it in the original email. Now, interestingly,

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Speaker 1: Chill's website returns page only offers store credit to not

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Speaker 1: full refunds, like Lily had stated. Now we ended up

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Speaker 1: receiving a legal letter and I do use that term

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Speaker 1: loosely from Lily's manager. I didn't think that managers had

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Speaker 1: law degrees. No, I mean this one did. So she

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Speaker 1: accused us of defamation and slander and said if we

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Speaker 1: didn't agree to their terms, they would seek legal action.

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Speaker 1: So Essentially what they wanted was they wanted us to

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Speaker 1: take the reel down and to not comment on the

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Speaker 1: matter any further. Now, what we ended up doing was

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Speaker 1: a full episode on the segment, and because it wasn't

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Speaker 1: worth the paper, the legal letter was written on. We

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Speaker 1: didn't mention this in the original segment, but it was

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Speaker 1: quite disappointing because around that time we got a lot

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Speaker 1: of abuse from one particular account who was linked to

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Speaker 1: a number of Lily Brown's friends, pinpointing our age and

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Speaker 1: making derogatory comments towards us. And when you're just reporting

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Speaker 1: news at the end of the day and facts that

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Speaker 1: have been put out from a statement, I didn't quite

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Speaker 1: understand the complete hostility, and that account seemed to know

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Speaker 1: a lot about what was going on behind the scenes,

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Speaker 1: was really sticking up full Lily. So it was quite

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Speaker 1: interesting anyway. Moving on at number three, we have Ruby

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Speaker 1: Tuesday Matthews, who back in May was accused of sharing

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Speaker 1: an exploitative photo of her four year old son to

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Speaker 1: sell a hat for her and Roby. Now. Ruby got

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Speaker 1: her son Mars, to model in the marketing campaign at

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Speaker 1: a banana farm. Now in the photo, the four year

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Speaker 1: old was photographed shirtless in low slung pants standing next

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Speaker 1: to a box of bananas that said lady fingers. Now.

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Speaker 1: The backlash was swift, with people labeling the photo exploitative

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Speaker 1: and disgusting. Ruby was also accused of being ignorant to

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Speaker 1: the dangers of online predators. Now. Ruby addressed the concerns

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Speaker 1: on her Instagram story, claiming she had taken the photos

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Speaker 1: of her son on her iPhone and it wasn't a

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Speaker 1: staged photo shoot. This is despite Ruby tagging a professional

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Speaker 1: photographer in the photos and reels. For me, it doesn't

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Speaker 1: really change things. If she took the photo or the

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Speaker 1: photographer took the photo, there was still the choice to

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Speaker 1: publish these photos. I think she was trying to act

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Speaker 1: like it was just the way the kid happened to

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Speaker 1: be standing. It wasn't some sort of photo shoot where

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Speaker 1: he was instructed to stand in a certain way. Now.

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Speaker 1: Ruby then explained that they had visited her friend's banana

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Speaker 1: farm and that's just how Mars was wearing his outfit

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Speaker 1: that day. She so defended the images, saying I'd also

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Speaker 1: like to say, if you were sexualizing that image of him,

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Speaker 1: I think you actually need to have a look at

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Speaker 1: the bigger picture of what your issue is, and maybe

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Speaker 1: you have become so overly sensitive that the line is

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Speaker 1: blurred of what is wrong and what is right, and

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Speaker 1: there is nothing wrong with that image. Now, that was

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Speaker 1: really a sad turn of events because Ruby revealed that

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Speaker 1: she had been a victim of sexual assault at fourteen,

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Speaker 1: which has made her super aware and vigilant around the

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Speaker 1: content that she shares of her children. And she went

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Speaker 1: on to say that she could claim the backlash had

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Speaker 1: triggered her, but she's a little bigger than that. She

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Speaker 1: finished up by saying how soft she thinks society is

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Speaker 1: these days, and that the lines have been so blurred

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Speaker 1: that anything can be taken the wrong way. Now. Adam Whittington,

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Speaker 1: the CEO of a not for profit charity that fights

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Speaker 1: to end child trafficking and exploitation of children, weighed into

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Speaker 1: the matter, labeling the photos as total exploitation of the child.

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Speaker 1: He also said it happens every single time a so

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Speaker 1: called influencer gets caught up exploiting their own kids. They always, always,

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Speaker 1: always say, in response to the backlash, if you see

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Speaker 1: my child's image as sexual, you have the problem. You

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Speaker 1: need to look at your stick problems. They then send

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Speaker 1: trolls to make comments in support of their actions, or

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Speaker 1: call those genuinely trying to help them by educating them

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Speaker 1: trolls and haters. Now, coming in at third place, we

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Speaker 1: have the South Australian Tourism Commission's Influencer only event with

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Speaker 1: Sam Smith. Now, South Australians were left less than impressed

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Speaker 1: when they were not only excluded from being able to

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Speaker 1: attend the concert, but discovered their taxpayer funds we used

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Speaker 1: to pay for the exclusive event. Now as South Australians ourselves,

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Speaker 1: the state was in uproar. I was pissed off about this.

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Speaker 1: It was just such a bad look. So the invite

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Speaker 1: only event was Sam's only performance in Australia and the

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Speaker 1: first in South Australia since twenty fifteen. So in total,

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Speaker 1: three hundred people were invited and the Tourism Minister, Zoe

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Speaker 1: Bettison claimed one hundred and fifteen were competition winners, while

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Speaker 1: ninety were influences and media personalities and twenty one were

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Speaker 1: SATC staff Lucky SATC stuff getting a front row ticket

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Speaker 1: to that. Now, the event was supposed to attract national

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Speaker 1: and international exposure for the state through Sam's social channels

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Speaker 1: as well as the influencers. The problem was the Contra

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Speaker 1: deal offered by the government didn't attract big name influencers,

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Speaker 1: and furthermore, as the influencers were obligated to post, the

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Speaker 1: coverage was very minimal, with most of it disappearing after

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Speaker 1: twenty four hours. They were clearly banking on Sam Smith

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Speaker 1: sharing this to their account because they do have over

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Speaker 1: fourteen million followers. The only catch was the content that

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Speaker 1: they did share was of them outside McDonald's on South

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Speaker 1: Road and it was a glamorous spot. No because the

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Speaker 1: Tourism Commission they'd taken them to all of these fancy restaurants,

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Speaker 1: winder Stars, grease, wined and dined them and then that

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Speaker 1: was the photo that they chose to share them outside

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Speaker 1: this huge golden Arch sign. They literally could have been anywhere.

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Speaker 1: Now in March, the ABC obtained documents which revealed the

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Speaker 1: details of the deal the SATC struck with influencers to

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Speaker 1: get them to attend the event. So for some interstate influences,

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Speaker 1: the Contra deal included free flights, transfers, accommodation and meals,

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Speaker 1: with the commercial costs predicted at two thousand dollars per influencer. Now,

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Speaker 1: the SATC confirmed that they shared the cost for the

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Speaker 1: event with Frontier Touring, who was putting on Sam Smith's concert,

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Speaker 1: and in January, Tourism Minister Zoe Betterson said the Sam

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Speaker 1: Smith concert cost less than half a million dollars and

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Speaker 1: resulted in thirty two million dollars worth of advertising for

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Speaker 1: the state. This was despite the fact that a review

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Speaker 1: found that they had absolutely no way to measure the

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Speaker 1: influencer's return on investments. Yes, so the results of a

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Speaker 1: review into the handling of the event were revealed in May,

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Speaker 1: and it was found that the SATC needed a greater

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Speaker 1: level of transparency when choosing which influencers to engage with.

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Speaker 1: Sa also agreed to overhaul its policies about engaging with influences.

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Speaker 1: We also have to mention the fact that there was

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Speaker 1: a rogue pisser, so someone apparently pissed in the mosh pit.

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Speaker 1: This was being reported at the time. We still don't

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Speaker 1: know who that influencer is. Yeah, and also this was

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Speaker 1: the first event that Sophie Kaisha attended with her new girlfriend,

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Speaker 1: Sophie vander Hoovel, so Sophie actually shared vision of her

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Speaker 1: cuddling into the other Sophie at the Sam Smith concert

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Speaker 1: recently for Sophie's birthday. God, it must be so confusing

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Speaker 1: with them both being called Sophie. I'm called Sophie, and

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Speaker 1: when we're reporting on issues with Sophie Guidlin and Sophie Kasha,

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Speaker 1: it gets confusing. The amount of sophie is that are

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Speaker 1: flying around. Well, I think Sophie Kaysha calls her VD instead.

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Speaker 1: Now I feel like we need a drum roll because

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Speaker 1: coming in in top spot for Outspoken's Biggest Influencer scandal

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Speaker 1: of twenty twenty three is Emma Clair. So. In April,

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Speaker 1: she shocked the internet when she admitted to killing two

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Speaker 1: cats as a child. I can't believe this was in April.

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Speaker 1: This just feels like the other day now. The twenty

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Speaker 1: eight year old made the disgusting revelation on her newly

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Speaker 1: revamped podcast called Simply Chaotic, and the timing could not

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Speaker 1: have been worse for Emma, who had just given birth

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Speaker 1: to her first child a week earlier. Now. As a refresher,

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Speaker 1: Emma and her co host Kirsty had been sharing personal

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Speaker 1: secrets on the podcast. When Emma said, I've got one.

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Speaker 1: I killed my cat, but I promise I'm really good

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Speaker 1: with my animals. She then went on to say, I

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Speaker 1: didn't mean to I was young, I was a child.

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Speaker 1: I was swinging my cat around like I was thinking

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Speaker 1: it was just a stuff toy, and I accidentally let

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Speaker 1: go of it. That is really difficult to listen to again.

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Speaker 1: It is deeply disturbing. The incident that took place, and

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Speaker 1: the fact that she thinks that this is some sort

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Speaker 1: of fun secret to share on a podcast. Let's get

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Speaker 1: to know me better. Oh, I horrifically murdered a pet cat. Oh,

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Speaker 1: it is so disgusting. Emma did later confirm that the

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Speaker 1: cat died from fright rather than an injury, and she

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Speaker 1: also said her sister didn't speak to her for months

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Speaker 1: following the incident and that her mum was fucking fuming.

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Speaker 1: She would then went on to say, I'm giggling about

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Speaker 1: it now, but this happened years and years ago, and

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Speaker 1: like I was a fucking little child. Emma then finished

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Speaker 1: up by offhandly revealing that she also killed her best

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Speaker 1: friend's cat. For her to then reveal that this wasn't

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Speaker 1: an isolated incident and this has actually happened a second

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Speaker 1: time with another friend's cat, was just so deeply troubling. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it really was. I just still can't believe that she

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Speaker 1: even recorded this, edited it, and then put it out

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Speaker 1: for the world to listener, and also used it as

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Speaker 1: a teaser to promote the episode. That's so true. This

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Speaker 1: wasn't live. This was said with a lot of hindsight,

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Speaker 1: and I just can't still get over it now. The

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Speaker 1: backlash was swift, causing Emma to share a statement. However,

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Speaker 1: rather than apologizing, she told her followers to chill and

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Speaker 1: said the story is a bit of light humor. She

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Speaker 1: also advised her audience to not listen to her podcast

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Speaker 1: if they couldn't handle the humor. She finished the statement

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Speaker 1: by writing again, sorry, not sorry for an hour accident

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Speaker 1: that happened over twenty years ago, and sorry not sorry

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Speaker 1: for having a giggle about it, because I think, still

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Speaker 1: twenty years on, I'm in shock by it now. Following

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Speaker 1: Emma's statement, multiple brands cut ties with her, including Lust

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Speaker 1: Minerals and MC beauty. A day later, Emmett had suddenly

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Speaker 1: changed her tune, apologizing for sharing the story and stating

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Speaker 1: that she was well aware that the story was not

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Speaker 1: light humor and in fact very serious. She also deleted

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Speaker 1: the story from her podcast, however, kept up the promotional

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Speaker 1: material that featured the story. She did end up leaving

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Speaker 1: social media shortly after the incident due to the apparent

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Speaker 1: bullying and death threats that she received. Before leaving the platform,

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Speaker 1: she said, the last nine weeks have been the toughest

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Speaker 1: of my life and my mental health has been destroyed.

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Speaker 1: Now she has stayed offline since then, I am wondering

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Speaker 1: if we will see her return this year. I am

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Speaker 1: really surprised Kate that Sarah's Day has not made the

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Speaker 1: top five scandals for this year. Well, if we were

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Speaker 1: doing a top ten, I was thinking of putting her

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Speaker 1: Sunny scandal in there, But I have noticed that she

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Speaker 1: really has taken a step back from really big scandals.

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Speaker 1: She's been wearing up to go though, since she has

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Speaker 1: shut down Sunny, so I feel like she may feature

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Speaker 1: next year. Yeah. I am really excited to see what

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Speaker 1: unfolds next year. Now, thank you so much for listening

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Speaker 1: to today's episode. If you have enjoyed it, could you

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Speaker 1: please make sure you do share across your stories. Yes,

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Speaker 1: and we do hope you have a wonderful New Year's

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Speaker 1: For Outspoken Plus subscribers, we will be counting down the

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Speaker 1: top five relationship dramas of twenty twenty three, so if

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Speaker 1: you are a subscriber and are looking for more content

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Speaker 1: to get you through the holiday period, it is a

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Speaker 1: great time to sign up now. This podcast was recorded

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Speaker 1: on the traditional land of the Ghana people of the

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Speaker 1: Adelaide Planes. We pay respect to elders past and present,