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

Slate Daily Feed

Slate

News, Society & Culture, Business

3.91.1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2022

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

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


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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

What is surprising, is it your celebrity crush knocking on your front door?

0:06.7

Oh, hiya!

0:08.4

Is it barbecuing and not burning the sausages?

0:11.5

Oh, hiya!

0:13.9

Is it realising your cat has more friends than you?

0:19.4

Or is it finding seven seasons of iconic American comedy parks and recreation to stream free on ITVX?

0:25.9

You'd be the judge, ITVX, the UK's freshest streaming service.

0:43.2

Hi, I'm Rachel Hampton and you're listening to ICYMI.

0:46.8

In case you missed it, Slate's podcast about internet culture,

0:50.2

and I hope you all are having an amazing week as we sit on the Wednesday

0:54.6

the ICYMI team is taking two whole weeks off to plant some bigger stuff down the road,

1:00.2

and to try and find a replacement for Mattis Malone Culture, it's a hard task.

1:05.7

So while we're doing that, we wanted to share some of Mattis' absolute favourite episodes.

1:16.0

Today we're bringing you one of our more serious episodes.

1:18.5

It's all about how true crime tick-tock profiteered off the disappearance

1:22.2

and eventual death of Gapipatito, a woman travelling across the country with her boyfriend

1:26.8

and a van. This episode originally aired on September 22nd, 2021, which means that yes,

1:32.4

you will hear Mattis' beloved voice once again.

1:36.2

In this episode, we had a pretty revealing discussion with one of the tick-tockers who was making

1:41.7

a name for themselves off of this woman's tragedy. So without further ado, did tick-tock find Gapipatito

1:48.4

or exploit her?

1:55.7

Today on the show, we're going to be talking about true crime tick-tock. Specifically,

...

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