False and hurtful conspiracy theories about the disappearance of Nicola Bulley were still being posted last night– 24 hours after her death was confirmed.
A Mirror investigation has revealed that by last night there had been a staggering 387 million views on TikTok of videos with the hashtag “NicolaBulley”.
A lot of that content is uninformed. An Ofcom study last year found that for those who consume news on TikTok, their main source is people they follow, then friends and family rather than news organisations.
Errors can multiply across the platform and users are increasingly unable to identify credible news from gossip or deliberate misinformation.
Lorena Taboas, from Common Sense Media, said: “Like a game of Chinese whispers, truth on social media can break down quickly.”
Nicola’s tragedy became a kind of entertainment for TikTok gossip-mongers seemingly unable to tell fact from fiction. The site is rife with false theories about Nicola’s other half Paul Ansell. Videos with the “NicolaBulleyshusband” hashtag have been seen over 34 million times.
In the hours after Lancashire police confirmed a body found in the River Wyre was mum-of-two Nicola, TikTok trolls kept posting horrifying accusations, lies and abuse about Nicola and her loved ones.
Alex Davies-Jones, the Shadow Minister for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, said: “Nicola Bulley’s family, and the whole community, have been seriously harmed by misinformation circulating on social media.
“The Online Safety Bill was supposed to tackle the role of engagement algorithms and business models which give misinformation a platform over trusted news sources, and enable damaging conspiracy theories to go viral.
“However, the Government has overseen constant delays to the bill, and then lost their nerve and watered it down. Without strengthening I’m concerned trolls and conspiracy theorists will continue to have free rein online.”
Throughout their probe, police treated Nicola as a missing person and said there was no evidence of a crime. It did not stop the speculation on TikTok.
Many on the app have spread the theory, without any evidence, her body was planted in the reeds where she was found on Sunday. TikTok sleuth
@waterfalls247, who says she is 33 and called Em, shared footage of dive expert Peter Faulding talking on GB News on Monday about how divers had searched the river thoroughly.
The Tiktok user then asks: “Who else thinks the body has been put there recently? Only the autopsy will reveil [sic] the truth who ever this is may they R.I.P”
The comment section on another person’s clip includes someone saying: “She was murdered, hidden for days then taken back.” This comment has been liked over 3,050 times.
A video from an account called @littlemissvodka – watched 1.5 million times – has an automated voice asking: “If she slipped, why was she at the edge next to the river? If she jumped in on purpose to end it all, why would she text a friend for playdate, email her work, go onto work meeting call...?”
An account called @tammioli has shared what they claim is “old drone footage of the river”, adding “you can clearly see something there”. The video shows nothing of note. TikTok says it removes abusive content – in July, August and September last year over 111 million videos were banned for breaking rules.
Many hashtags have previously been banned.
A few social media content creators seemingly interfered with the police investigation. A TikToker, Dan Duffy, 36, of Darwen, Lancs, was arrested and given a fixed penalty notice. He posted a video saying: “I’m being arrested on a public order offence. They’ve had an allegation. I was in the search to find Nicola.” He previously said he had “been in people’s gardens at night”.
TikTok said: “Our thoughts are with Ms Bulley’s family and friends.
“We have mobilised additional resources to take action against violations of our Community Guidelines, including removing content and accounts that engage in bullying and harassment, and reducing the potential spread of conspiratorial content by making it ineligible for recommendation to the For You feed.”
During their probe, police issued dispersal orders to online content creators filming in St Michael’s on Wyre where Nicola vanished.
- Ofcom has asked ITV and Sky for an explanation after Nicola’s family claimed that despite pleas for privacy they were contacted by the broadcasters after the mortgage adviser’s body was found.
What is this app all about?
Favoured by youngsters, video-sharing app TikTok has more than a billion monthly users.
Users post 15-second clips of singing, dancing, making jokes or lip-syncing, but other content such as conspiracy theories are becoming more prevalent.
Nearly 27% of users are aged 13 to 17, 40% are 18 to 24, and 25% are 25 to 34.
They spend an average of 95 minutes on the platform every day.
Owned by Chinese company ByteDance, the app became available worldwide in 2018.
Those with many followers, or viewers, can get paid to post content. With 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in 30 days, users can apply to the creator fund to make money per click.
TikTok is three times as popular as Twitter, which has 300 million monthly users.
