ICYMI: Encore: Did TikTok Find Gabby Petito, or Exploit Her?

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Slate

Society & Culture, Technology, History

4.6 • 636 Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2022

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

While authorities searched for missing 22-year-old Gabby Petito, she was everywhere to be found on TikTok, Reddit, and Instagram. Content creators, some well-intentioned and others simply chasing clout and clicks, turned the story of Gabby’s apparent death into the latest in true crime drama. On today’s show, Madison and Rachelle talk about the murkiness of the true crime internet and the ethics of using tragedy for clicks. They’re joined later in the show by Haley Toumaian, a TikTok creator and novice true crime podcast host who says the rapid pace of the news genre means sometimes getting things wrong in front of an audience of millions and willfully sharing misinformation.* Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder and Derek John. This episode originally aired on September 22, 2021. Subscribe to Slate Plus at slate.com/icymiplus Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I made you think you was real.
0:02.0	My name is Caden Sinclair.
0:04.0	Some people call us American royalty.
0:06.0	We were Liars.
0:08.0	A new series on Prime Video.
0:10.0	We were happy. We wanted for nothing.
0:12.0	Based on the best-selling novel.
0:15.0	Something terrible happened last summer,
0:17.0	and I have no memory of what or who hurt me.
0:20.0	No one in my family will tell me.
0:22.7	When you're left for dead, you want answers.
0:25.2	We Will Liars. New series, missed it, Slate's podcast about internet culture.
0:50.1	And I hope you all are having an amazing week. As we said on Wednesday, the ICY and my team is taking two whole weeks off to plan some bigger stuff down the road.
0:59.9	And to try and find a replacement for Madison Malone Kircher.
1:03.8	It's a hard task.
1:05.5	So while we're doing that, we wanted to share some of my mine Madison's absolute favorite episodes.
1:18.1	Today we're bringing one of our more serious episodes.
1:23.4	It's all about how true crime TikTok profiteered off the disappearance and eventual death of Gabby Petito, a woman traveling across the country with her boyfriend in a van.
1:28.1	This episode originally aired on September 22nd, 2021, which means that, yes, you will hear Madison's beloved
1:33.9	voice once again. In this episode, we had a pretty revealing discussion was one of the TikTokers
1:40.9	who was making a name for themselves off of this woman's tragedy.
1:48.9	So without further ado, did TikTok find Gabby Petito or exploit her?
	...

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