Irish influencer Siobhan O’Hagan appeared on Prime Time to discuss her own experience with forum website Tattle Life.
This month, Neil and Donna Sands successfully revealed the name of the owner of Tattle Life as Sebastian Bond after a lengthy legal battle.
Since then, several well known faces across Ireland and the UK have discussed their own experience with the anonymous site.
Siobhan, who is a fitness influencer, has faced her fair share of trolling on the site.
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Speaking to Miriam O’Callaghan on Prime Time, she explained: “I think for the last seven or eight years I’ve had every single thing I’ve done twisted and criticised and analysed.”
She admitted that it is mostly women who have been receiving “harassment, abuse, criticism” on sites like Tattle.
“It has changed the way that I post… I’m a very open person, I’m a very opinionated person. I always say, ‘If you don’t like what I post, don’t follow me.’,” she shared about her experience with trolling.
“But, I found that I will even think now… it’s always ‘What are they gonna do with it?’ and ‘How are they gonna twist this into a negative narrative?’”
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She added that these trolls have “made up lies” about her on these forums.
“They’ve done whatever they can to try sabotage me. I don’t really know what they want me to do. But, in terms of influencing, I work with a lot of businesses and I know they contact them and send them lies.”
She admitted that trolls have tried to get into her online coaching business, adding that they have tried to “hack the website, they’ll just sign my email up to random junk.”
“They have too much time on their hands. Luckily, I’m in a very good place,” she said. “So, I’ve been able to rise above it. I know I have friends who have been harmed much more by it and they’re looking at it.
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“It is tempting. It is tempting to see what they say because you want to correct it or you want to say the truth. But, I’ve learnt from other people trying to correct it that they don’t want the truth. They just want gossip.”
Following the owner of Tattle Life being unveiled before the Court of Justice in Belfast last week, Siobhan admitted that she wasn’t sure if that was enough to end the harassment.
“I don’t know if much is going to change, but I definitely feel like. I’m a little bit more confident in myself this week. I’ve never even mentioned Tattle before this week and now here I am talking about it…”
She went on to say:“I made the mistake – If I ever was asked about it on a podcast – I’d say, ‘I never look at it, I never look at it. So, I don’t know what they’re saying about me and I’m probably still annoying them’ […] I think they took to say, ‘Well, I’m gonna show ya what we’re saying.’
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“So, they sent a document of all the notes they were keeping on me for the last few years and the detail, the screenshots… trying to figure out who I was with and when. All the flights I had taken, keeping an eye on my carbon footprint.
“There were some details and I was like, ‘Is this someone in my inner circle?’ but I tend to overshare. So, it could have just been having let something slip to somebody but they’re also waiting for me to contradict myself.”