The Snark Web: Has online gossip gone too far?

When a high-profile ‘I’m a Celebrity' contestant admitted on the show that she regularly checked her Tattle Life forum, it transformed the site from being a fringe internet space into a mainstream cultural fixture.

TikTokker and podcast host GK Barry is one of many UK-based public figures to have a forum about her on the site where anonymous users comment on those in the public eye.

Known for its obsessive scrutiny of influencers, the website has become a digital spectre looming over content creators, who have even been known to sometimes pre-empt criticism before it lands.

The forum saw over a million posts added in a single year, with some creators amassing threads that stretch across dozens of pages. 

For some, it’s a place of catharsis and accountability. 

For others, it’s cyberbullying at scale, where ‘trolls’ punch down under the guise of ‘holding influencers to account’.

But what drives the people who post? 

Is it public interest, jealousy, or something more complicated?

Original footage from "I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!" (ITV, 2024).

Graphic by Lucinda Dodd

What is Tattle Life?

Tattle Life launched in 2018. It was branded as a place to discuss “influencers, celebrities and public figures”  especially those “who choose to monetise their lives online”.  It’s part of a broader internet culture trend known as ‘snark’. 

Unlike Reddit or X, which rely on upvotes or reposts for visibility, Tattle Life is structured like an old-school internet forum. Users create threads, quoting one another - creating pages and pages of dialogue between people critiquing influencers on anything from the style of their hair, to their parenting, to what they choose to have for dinner.

By May 2025, Tattle Life had racked up more than 22 million messages and over 47 thousands threads.

Graphic by Lucinda Dodd

Chart made on Flourish, data from Tattle Life.

Many creators such as cleaning sensation Mrs Hinch, Love Island star Molly Mae and YouTuber Zoe Sugg - ‘Zoella’ - have huge sections of the site dedicated to them.

Mrs Hinch tops them all with over 700 threads. 

Whilst more traditional celebrities have many threads too - such as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and Katie Price - many smaller, niche influencers often become some of the most spoken about individuals on the site.

Take Becki Jones, a TikTokker who focuses on food-related videos, who has over 150 threads dedicated to her - amounting to over 150 thousand individual comments.

Or UK family vloggers ‘The Ingham Family’ - who have over 370 threads.

Who is behind the website?

The ownership of Tattle Life is difficult to trace.

It’s operated by a company called Lime Goss, with the site's founder known by the pseudonym ‘Helen McDougal’. 

In an interview, Helen McDougal said that the forum was launched to address concerns about influencers "brazenly breaking the guidelines for adverts".

The site generates revenue through digital advertising, displaying banner ads across its forums.

Why do people use Tattle Life?

Tattle Life generally focuses on small influencers - as opposed to mainstream celebrities or influencers with bigger profiles. 

Dr Emily Setty, an academic at the University of Surrey, has worked with young people to analyse their use of social media. 

Her research found that young people are often concerned about how authentically a person comes across online. 

Smaller influencers, living a more ‘average’ life, often feel as though they’re being more ‘authentic’. 

Dr Setty contrasts this with influencers such as the Kardashians - who aren’t trying to market themselves as being authentic and therefore don’t face as much criticism over their plainly less achievable lifestyles. 

She said this means that when influencers who appear more authentic do something to burst the illusion about their relatability, it can be perceived by followers as betraying their audience. 

Most Tattle Life threads focus predominantly on female influencers and, a lot of those making comments appear to be women. 

Dr Setty said that this seems to be due to the tight expectations pushed upon women and girls, with much of the criticism of targets involving the questioning of their social status. 

“Girls and women have to navigate quite a tight tightrope of expectations,” she said.

These can include constraints like ‘be sexy but not slutty’.

“So some of the social policing of that amongst women can be quite heightened,” she said.

A common theme on threads involves critics saying how much harder they work than influencers - or claiming that their parenting is better than those of the influencers they are scrutinising.

Dr Setty said this can involve what some sociologists call ‘defensive othering’.

She said: “You will scrutinise what others are doing as a way of positioning yourself on the right line of things. What you’re saying is: ‘I’m none of those things. I can see it and that means I'm not’.”

One anonymous Tattle Life reader said she turns to the forum “to see if people are having the same thoughts as me on different influencers who I find interesting or annoying.” 

While acknowledging that she finds the site “childish and strange” at times - with some posts feeling “unproductive” and "unnecessarily cruel” - she also felt it “has its place.”

“There is a lot of fair criticism there too,” the reader said. 

“It takes influencers off a pedestal. It takes them out of the specifically catered image that they have put up of themselves,” she said.

Ultimately, the Tattle Life reader believes public figures should be open to scrutiny.

She said: “If you’re an influencer, you have to be prepared to be criticized. At the end of the day, it’s free speech. People need to be able to voice their criticism. Nobody should be immune to that.”

Still, she admitted: “If I was an influencer, then I would probably feel very scared of Tattle Life - you’re getting picked apart.”

Why do people use Tattle Life?

One anonymous Tattle Life reader shares why they use the website. The reader discusses specifically reading the Tattle Life thread for Melanie Murphy - an Irish Vlogger with over 600 thousand YouTube subscribers. Their voice has been altered for anonymity.

Anonymous person on why they read Tattle Life:

Anonymous Tattle Life reader on whether they think the site is helpful or harmful:

Anonymous Tattle Life reader on whether the website is fair criticism or just gossip:

Soundcloud background picture courtesy of Growtika via Unsplash.

What is it like to be the subject of a Tattle Life thread?

Getting influencers to talk about Tattle Life proved to be challenging. 

Even when promised anonymity, influencers mostly declined - citing fears that their identities might be discovered, leading to further harassment on the website. 

One influencer who agreed to talk has been given the codename ‘Jane’. 

“The harassment has been horrendous,” she said.

"Anything I wrote would get twisted," Jane recalled, describing the constant scrutiny she faced. 

She said the pressure and fear created by the forum became all-consuming.

"I was waking up in the morning, and the first thing I was doing was checking my thread. 

“I was examining everything I would write on social media to see how they could twist it - checking it maybe 30 times a day. 

“It was taking over my life."

Jane said the impact was not only personal but also took a toll on those around her. 

"It was affecting my partner. It was affecting my friends," she said.

Asked if she had considered legal action, Jane said: "Given that celebrities and influencers who have loads of money aren’t able to get it removed, I have very little chance."

Jane sought help from the police, but her concerns were dismissed. "I was told it’s just women bitching on the internet.”

“At some point, somebody is going to kill themselves because of Tattle," she warned.

Can Tattle be tamed?

Whilst the site’s critics will argue that Tattle Life is responsible for extreme cyberbullying, those who use it feel that it provides a vital space to hold influencers accountable.

Users say it’s liberating to be able to discuss influencers in a place where they are not moderating the discussion.

The question of whether sites like Tattle Life should be regulated is contentious.

Dr Setty suggested that gossip and snark websites are not simply online aberrations but part of human behaviour, meaning trying to regulate them might prove futile.

But she did point out that social media platforms are designed in ways that amplify controversy.

She said that this is because content that provokes strong reactions often drives the highest engagement, and platforms rely on that engagement to make money.

Therefore, she believes that as long as algorithms reward outrage, and attention remains the currency of the internet, spaces like Tattle Life will continue to thrive.