Hi, I’ve done a review of the BBC R4 Documentary – Me & My Trolls that I figure some of the members of this discussion thread may be interested in watching. I’ll come back on Saturday in case anyone has any questions etc but before you watch it I thought I should say a couple of things.
I first found Tattle.Life following ‘freaky Friday’ so have been aware of the other side of the story for quite some time. I make videos considering the intersection between ‘hate speech’ and online censorship so, after hearing the File on 4 episode, I felt compelled to return to Tattle and read the Sali Hughes threads in much more detail. The attached video is the outcome of that research.
I sincerely hope that you view it as an act of solidarity for a group of women who I believe have been unfairly portrayed by the BBC as possible hate criminals. In that context please accept your comparison to mean girls and troll-like creatures as both tongue in cheek and something of a back-handed compliment.
Having read the threads my assessment is that you come across as a much more decent and nuanced group of human beings than the sewer rats you have been portrayed to be.
Your hobbies are not my hobbies but one of the things that drew me to your story is that I can very much relate to you as essentially a group of (beauty) nerds simply seeking to openly talk about your mutual interests and concerns. BTW it’s been heartening to read about the friendships that have been formed as a result of all the chatter.
I set your story within the wider context of similar ones that, over recent years, I believe have been exploited by those in favour of introducing extremely draconian online censorship and extending hate crime laws in ways that (as the R4 documentary shows) can be easily misrepresented and abused.
My videos don’t get many views and can be a tad on the long side so at some point I’ll aim to do a shorter summary version of your tale. I appreciate that you may not agree with everything I say but I sincerely hope that you get something positive out of my efforts: