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Kat Tenbarge Profile picture
@kattenbarge
Apr 17 • 12 tweets • 6 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
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On the unregulated set of a YouTube channel with more than 10 million subscribers — one you've probably never heard of — 11 teen plaintiffs allege shocking abuse. The channel makes millions of dollars by entertaining young children. From me + @KalhanR nbcnews.com/pop-culture/ce…
On Piper Rockelle's channel, videos with millions of views depict children engaging in what many adults characterize as age-inappropriate skits, which parents say the kids and their viewers didn't understand was supposed to be fake — leading to trauma, harassment, and bullying. Image
Many of the children who performed with Piper had worked on real TV and movie sets before, but in YouTube’s Hollywood, there are no rules or regulations. Parents said Tiffany Smith, Piper’s mom, abused their kids under her “care and control.” Image
These are just some of the claims of sexual abuse, which are very difficult to read. Tiffany Smith denies the claims. This is what children say happens to them in the Wild West of YouTube stardom. ImageImageImage
But wait, there's more. After leaving Piper's "Squad," the plaintiffs say their own YouTube revenue on their own channels plummeted. They accuse Tiffany Smith and her boyfriend Hunter Hill of various methods of sabotaging the kids' YouTube channels. This is dystopian stuff. Image
If you have heard of Piper Rockelle before, it’s probably because of this @Pink tweet from 2021. I’ve been following this harrowing story ever since. It involves various defamation lawsuits spanning years, the stars of the OG TikTok, Musical.ly, and even the FBI. Image
But what's missing from the story is accountability. Back in Sept 2021, after the P!nk tweet, @kieranpressreyn and I started requesting comment from YouTube. First, they took down three of Piper's thumbnails for violating their child safety policy. insider.com/piper-rockelle…
You may be wondering, "Hm, if YouTube recognizes elements of this channel violate child safety, shouldn't they take further action?" Well, you'd be wrong. It took the current lawsuit being sent to YouTube for them to demonetize Piper's channel. insider.com/youtube-piper-…
Oh, and Piper's channel? It's still up, she's still churning out videos featuring other kids, she's selling merch and touring the country, and Tiffany Smith said she has obtained a permit to work with children in California. (h/t @AmyKinLA and the LA Times, story linked in ours) Image
This is a civil case, so it won't impact the status quo in YouTube by itself. I talked to the brilliant @CatalinaGoanta about the much wider global landscape of child influencers and the implications of various cases over the past 10 years. Image
Here is the full complaint for today's case detailing all of the most current allegations: dhillonlaw.com/wp-content/upl…
Our story is just the tip of the iceberg — not just for Tiffany Smith's YouTube operation, but for the entire platform and how it enables the monetization of child abuse. nbcnews.com/pop-culture/ce…

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More from @kattenbarge

Kat Tenbarge Profile picture
Apr 17
Hey quick question why do people go on podcasts and brag in detail about committing sexual assault because this has happened numerous times
My theory is that rape culture has conditioned people into a. not recognizing what sexual assault is and b. viewing sexual violence as a thing to brag about because c. they view sexual violence as sex
As a caveat, at least some of them are well aware what they're doing is sexual assault or rape and just brag about it anyways, because they clearly don't feel that repercussions are a threat to them
Read 4 tweets
Kat Tenbarge Profile picture
Apr 16
It’s lovely that a beloved children’s author supports the trans community but framing JK Rowling as a victim of online harassment is not accurate. JKR has aided harassment and bigotry on a massive scale and has received comparably small pushback online in response.
A lot of media coverage of JKR has been disappointing in this regard because it doesn’t really probe the depths of her anti-trans and broader anti-women conduct but if you really want to get into it I recommend @CaelanConrad
Being a true ally to the trans community starts by being honest about the fearmongering and dishonesty at the heart of anti-trans movements which are progressing at a genocidal rate in the US, right now. “I support trans people” is a wonderful sentiment and absolutely not enough.
Read 4 tweets
Kat Tenbarge Profile picture
Apr 16
This is part of a great thread about resources to understand why people support Amber Heard. I wanted to point this out specifically — it’s shocking to me how many people have an opinion but haven’t read this. It lays out all the evidence you never heard about on social media.
Each incident of abuse Amber alleged in court is detailed in this document alongside supporting evidence or lack thereof and the judge’s reasoning for why he accepts or doesn’t accept each claim Image
This is one of the first primary documents I looked at in my research and it shows how Depp would lie or “forget” details at first and then later admit or “remember” them when faced with evidence (often his own words in texts, prior interviews, etc) Image
Read 13 tweets
Kat Tenbarge Profile picture
Mar 9
I don't care if you like Meghan Markle or not. She's a victim of a smear campaign and a harassment campaign. The evidence is on social media for anyone to see. Your opinion of her Netflix series or her as a person is irrelevant. Whether a victim is "likeable" doesn't matter.
Every day I see well-intentioned people conflate the harassment campaign against Meghan Markle with opinions. Having an opinion is fine. Having a negative opinion is also generally okay. What's not okay is defamation, bullying, lying, abusing, and harassing someone.
The campaign against Meghan Markle is particularly egregious because her only crime is being disliked, but in general because of the internet, we're able to stage outrageously disproportionate outrage and harassment campaigns against people — and the principle of that is unfair.
Read 7 tweets
Kat Tenbarge Profile picture
Mar 8
Something very twisted about the women who are most frequently targeted with nonconsensual deepfakes is they tend to be women who have spoken about not doing sex scenes, wearing revealing clothing, and not wanting to do OnlyFans. The desire to deepfake them is about power
Free porn already exists (usually unethically) and can be accessed just as easily as these deepfakes, but creators and consumers are going out of their way to put nonconsenting women in extreme pornography to deny them the right to bodily autonomy and their own likeness
Creators of celebrity deepfake porn revel in the ability to do so legally. They use terms like "the legal underground" to describe their "work." Some deepfake websites have the word "bitch" in the title. The culture revolves around forced subjugation of women
Read 9 tweets
Kat Tenbarge Profile picture
Mar 8
I watched a preview of the Netflix documentary “Money Shot: The Pornhub Story” last night and highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the discourse around sex trafficking, anti-porn policies, sex workers, and censorship. Every person involved got their chance to speak
and I think the documentary hit on the most frustrating aspect of the debate to me — the vast majority of nonconsensual sexual material and CSAM isn’t on pornhub, yet they’ve been made the scapegoat of the entire internet
Imagine if the campaign was against Google or Meta. Both companies host more nonconsensual sexual content by FAR but no one is calling for their executives to be jailed or their websites to be banned. Pornhub hosts lots of straight up evil content but so does YouTube and Facebook
Read 6 tweets

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