Owner of Tattle Life named

[BeardofHagrid]

The owner of hate forum Tattle Life has today been legally named as Sebastian Bond. He also goes by the alias Bastian Durward. He has tried to flee to Asia to avoid paying his legal costs.

https://goss.ie/featured/everything-we-know-about-the-owner-of-tattle-life-as-he-is-finally-named-423238

It's really not a good site. It's vicious and misogynistic and name-calling for the sake of it. There's ways to expose people, if that's needed, without resorting to the nastiest bullying I've ever read on thr Internet.

The thing with social services, obviously if someone does it maliciously then it's wrong but some people will genuinely think they are right. Look at threads on here about social services, half will say behaviour is wrong and half will agree. Thats the problem with putting yourself out there.

Exactly this.

They just want the site gone which is fair enough. I don't even know how they would prove someone had been stalking them or calling social services etc.

Sounds like it would be a lengthy court case and a very expensive one.

If any influencer has doxxed anyone and set their followers on them to harass them, which I've seen a few times, surely that wouldnt look great in court?

The Irish couple would have had to prove their business lost money/income due to the comments that they requested be taken down and then they weren't.

I just think that all of this mess has shown 2 things

1. Influencers do need to be held to account and be monitored appropriately, not bringing their children into the mix
2. The general public need to step away from social media so much and just take a break. We've become addicted and it's causing a lot of problems

This is also a tricky one! How do you convince someone that they've done it maliciously? They may be watching your style of parenting and think it is neglectful and abusive. It's a difficult line to draw. What's the difference between me calling social services on an influencer who shares every second of every day online or the person across the street? (Disclaimer, i do not do this!)

Some people may have genuine concerns about the safety and wellbeing of the children being shared

Some people may have genuine concerns about the safety and wellbeing of the children being shared

Exactly

There have been open threats on tattle to call social services on people - if someone is reported to social services they can do it anon and the person on the receiving end wouldn't be told who made the call. Stalking is a criminal matter -if someone felt that they were being harassed - police would be their first port of call. If someone has had a report made to social services about them -malicious or not, social services would tell them.

There's a difference between holding people to account - and some of the stuff that gets posted on some of the threads in my view anyway.

I find that with a lot of the YouTubers, they are basically making mini films about their life, what they do, where they go etc and they publish it online for people to see. They know full well that not everyone will like everything they do. How is criticising their YouTube video any different from doing it to a reality show on TV. We talk about the good and the bad.

I've used tattle and most of the time it is calling out influencers for not declaring gifted things, not declaring something as an advert or that they were paid to say good things and then just general praise (yes I've seen praise) and criticism of the videos they publish.

I've never seen anything get too bad and have actually seen posters tell other posters off if they go too far.

If someone makes a complaint to social services the person on the receiving end of the complaint won't be told who made it due to data protection. What concerns would someone have about an influencers kids so that they would report to social services? I personally wouldn't ever make a complaint to social services unless I thought someone was at risk - social workers have enough to do and services are stretched enough as it is in my view. Someone sharing every second of every day online isn't something that social services would get involved with unless there were genuine concerns that a child was at risk.

Yes that's right. But some threads basically end up with people fat shaming influencers and more. The Brogan Tate threads are full of comments about her size. The Becki Jones one was the same. I don't think women need to be pulled apart for their appearance just because they are often questionable influencers.

Oh I 100% agree and wouldn't even think about calling social services on anyone unless i was definitely sure something was amiss.
But a lot of people make this their whole lives.

Bottom line is it would be too expensive to settle in court, if they can settle out of court they will or they will go all out to get the site shut down because, realistically, what can they do? It just cost this Irish couple a ridiculous amount to find the owner of the site. An influencer would have to do that for every single poster. It's a lot of work when they can just get the site shut down.

What concerns would someone have about an influencers kids so that they would report to social services?

Doesn't it depend on individual circumstances? Logically some influencers will be neglectful or abusive from a statistical perspective.

I personally wouldn't ever make a complaint to social services unless I thought someone was at risk

Of course and some may have genuine concern, others will be stupid eg wasn't Kirsty Alsop reported for letting her son go travelling! I mean people confess to murders they didn't do, humans can be strange! 😆

Indeed. But they were awarded damages and costs although I'm pretty sure it's not been paid to them yet. It would surely be the owner of the site that influencers would go after for not removing defamatory posts

I think the issue I have is where people threaten to do it and then don't follow through. It's all very well deciding that someone is a terrible parent - but to post on threads saying I'm going to report this person - it's just needless in my view.

There are a couple of people on certain parts of tattle who don't look like great parents - but I'm not sure they would be considered neglectful by social services. Like - I'm sure people raised concerns for the son of a very well known blogger more than once -but did they make the report to social services, I don't think so. If people are going to report someone they should do it because they've got genuine concerns - not just because they really don't like that person

Yeah I agree. Especially as he states on his website that they remove all hate posts etc.
I guess that is also a broad term, what counts as a hate post?
It would probably be too expensive for influencers to go after individual posters and hard for them to show how that one post has affected them but I imagine they could go after the website as a whole?

I think the issue I have is where people threaten to do it and then don't follow through. It's all very well deciding that someone is a terrible parent - but to post on threads saying I'm going to report this person - it's just needless in my view.

They shouldn't be threatening to do it in the first place but I think that's better than actually doing it. People are full of bluster and doing things for effect as opposed to thinking about what they are actually typing.

If people are going to report someone they should do it because they've got genuine concerns - not just because they really don't like that person

Of course, who would disagree with that.

Apparently Dr Jessica Taylor is trying to bring a criminal action against tattle and to try and take action against individual posters as well. It's in today's Daily Mail. Whether she will succeed - who knows.

I just saw this. How can they possibly argue something criminal on what is a legal website?
The lines will all start to blur. It's starting to get very odd!

Mrs Hinch has just posted on her Instagram that she's been stalked and harassed and that her thread is one of the most hateful. She also said that her business has been affected. I assume more people will take action against the site now that people know who owns it

Ahh I see. So physical stalking then I imagine. Which of course is horrendous.

Yes I agree. I think it'll be the site that people take action against.

It's a shame tattle has gone the way that it has. There are valid points on there (with evidence) and they are the first to pick up on influencers/celebs shady dealings, but it always ends up going too far.

I saw Lauryn Goodmans thread mentioned on here and read through her numerous threads. Her lies, criminal past, scams and troubling behaviour is all documented there, however, some users resort to name calling her children and that is disgusting. I had to stop reading the later thread because of the constant name calling of the innocent kids.

Similarly, I read someone from Geordie Shore's thread as I clicked on by accident. I'm sure she's done similar to Goodman and probably deserves these things to be called out but the page I landed on had a comment like 'all of us posting here love her children more than she does' how twisted is that?

I suppose I could also name the absolute worst comments I've read on Mumsnet, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter etc and that would also make each site appear to be horrific?

This is where it’s hyperbole- part of the scare tactics. It’s not a criminal case- the Irish couple’s case heard in 2023 wasn’t!
It isn’t a criminal offence to be on this hideous website and it isn’t a criminal offence to say online something unpleasant about someone! Where the line into criminality strays is about doxxing and harassment etc so the influencers and celebs would have to prove how tattlers sent them direct threats and stalking messages etc. Each on an individual case by case basis- in order to prove harassment might be tricky because if it’s about you and not to you, not sure about how the malicious comms comes in to that.
It would set a precedent for sure- because there are sure some nasty comments all over forums, all over the internet. This Irish couple also haven’t yet (as far as I know) gone after individuals defaming them.
The gov could intervene telling these sites to have better moderation but there is no way they’re going to shut them down in a country like ours which has free speech.

They’re going after him and his lack of moderation which allowed the unpleasantness.

They just want it shut down, I’m telling ya!

Ofcom have already succeeded in blocking access to the fruit farm website from UK IP addresses, so I don't think Tattle will stand for long with or without this Irish couple's efforts.

There is a good chance that a lot of the content on tattle could fall foul of the law. The law seems like a bit of an ass on this one with wide ranging scope for interpretation.

"The Malicious Communications Act deals with sending indecent, grossly offensive, or menacing messages, or false messages intended to cause annoyance, inconvenience, or anxiety."

It's all very vague and could relate to a lot of things I've seen posted all over the internet, not just on Tattle. Basically if you caused someone anxiety you could be breaking the law? (Please someone legal tell me I'm wrong on this!)

Didn't one of the celeb statements posted on here mention malicious communications? It seemed like a very particular choice of words as if they were referencing that law. (I'm sorry I have no idea who any of these people are so the news quotes have rather gone over my head).

It apparently crossed over into the Irish couples real life - they've said they were stalked offline as a result of the thread and information that was posted about them.

Sue Radford has doxxed people who use Tattle, by posting their names and addresses so I’m not sure she’s in any position to be threatening anyone with legal action tbh.

I use Tattle. I don’t post obsessively on it, but it does seem really weird to me that the media have got their teeth into this but have turned a blind eye at all the damage being done by family vloggers. The Inghams were mentioned up thread, but there’s a lot more too, many of whom have pulled their children from school just so they can appear in the vlogs more.

One smaller vlogger filmed up the nightdress of his little girl while she was opening some presents. I messaged him on Instagram, I was instantly blocked and YouTube don’t care. The sooner this whole vlogging and influencer is got rid off, the better.

Of course some threads and some posters go too far, but they do everywhere. If they take down Tattle then the whole internet is at risk.