A TikTok conspiracy theory: Helen Keller is a fraud?
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 29 January 2021
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A bizarre conspiracy theory on the social media platform TikTok is uncovered after a Twitter thread goes viral. What does this say about how misinformation spreads online? What are the unintended consequences? And are generations further apart than ever before?
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Guests:
- Daniel Kunka, a screenwriter in Los Angeles.
- Seren Morris, freelance journalist.
- Pat Palmer, a former primary school teacher.
- Elizabeth MacLeod, an author on Helen Keller.
- TikTokker Keith Runk.
Host: Will Roe.
Clips used: Krunk19 TikTok, LucyEdwardsblind TikTok, Helen Keller YouTube channel.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, it's Mannveen here. Today's episode follows a bizarre conspiracy theory on the social media platform Tik-Tock. |
| 0:09.0 | My colleague, one of the stories of our Times producers Will Rowe has been investigating. |
| 0:14.3 | Guys, something insane happened to me today. |
| 0:18.2 | I'm on a text chain with my teenage nieces and nephews, along with my mom, their grandma. |
| 0:22.0 | And today my mom asked them if they knew who Helen |
| 0:24.8 | Kellyn was. And their response was that Helen Keller was a fraud who didn't exist. Daniel Conquers a screenwriter. He's based in Los Angeles. |
| 0:38.0 | At first I thought they were trolling grandma, which is admittedly fun, but after a while it was clear they weren't joking. |
| 0:44.0 | He's reading a Twitter thread he wrote on January the 5th this year. |
| 0:48.0 | After being left gobsmacked by an exchange with his family... |
| 0:51.0 | I still thought I was getting controlled so I still thought I was getting |
| 0:52.9 | controlled so I asked if I was getting trolled and they were adamant. |
| 0:56.1 | Ellen Keller was a fraud. Daniel's nieces and nephews are questioning the |
| 1:01.6 | achievements of the author and disability rights campaigner Helen Keller. |
| 1:06.0 | So where has this rather odd conspiracy theory come from and who or what is behind it. |
| 1:13.0 | So that I did some googling to find out some relevant information to prove her existence and found this. |
| 1:18.0 | The generation that doesn't believe Helen Keller existed. |
| 1:22.0 | You're listening to stories of our times from The Times and the Sunday Times. |
| 1:27.0 | I'm Will Rowe. |
| 1:28.0 | Today, a Tik-top conspiracy theory. |
| 1:32.0 | Helen Keller is a fraud? |
| 1:33.7 | Now this is one of those stories that sounds totally absurd. |
| 1:44.8 | Some people on the internet believe a thing that simply isn't true. |
... |
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