4. The battle for Roxy Jacenko's Wikipedia, Trump's hair graphs and cleaning TikToks
4. The battle for Roxy Jacenko's Wikipedia, Trump's hair graphs and cleaning TikToks
"He's been trying to tell us for years" they said about POTUS' hair.
Hello friends,
As per usual, I am opening by apologising for the break since I last wrote.
I hope you have been keeping well.
Enjoy,
Cam
P.S. I have a Facebook Page for my reporting now. If it’s not too much of a hassle, would you mind tossing it a like? Thanking you!
THE BATTLE FOR ROXY JACENKO’S WIKIPEDIA
I’ve been obsessed with the idea of the television show SAS.
Putting C-listers through a gruelling and frankly torture-like boot camp run by instructors (who, by the way, have no affiliation with the Australian SAS)? And airing this at the exact same time the real SAS is being investigated for doing big war crimes?
Belissimo.
The inclusion of Roxy Jacenko was really the cherry on top. The self-anointed “PR queen” left after just 6 hours on the show. But she managed to fit so much into that time: a fight with her former best friend and a feud with an instructor before quitting due to an injury.
Following the appearance, Jacenko and her husband both posted on social media about the online criticism from people about her short-lived appearance on the show. (I have complex feelings about celebrities responding to mild criticism on social media but I’ll leave that for another time.)
And one of my Twitter followers Roland pointed out another place where Jacenko was copping it: on Wikipedia.
For years, Jacenko’s Wikipedia page has been a battleground. Since being created in 2013, insurgent guerilla users have periodically launched attacks on the article before loyal editors would revert changes.
For a period of six months during 2017-18, someone kept adding that Jacenko was a narcissist.
Then in 2019, an user suggested Jacenko’s page should be restricted to edits due to a rise in vandalism following her appearance on A Current Affair to talk about her Poo Jogger.
But nothing compares to the recent edits. In October, one user has made multiple edits on the page, undeterred by the near-instantaneous rollbacks, before being banned.
The user’s account name? ‘Roxy’s cousin’.
Now, there’s no evidence to support to prove that this person is in fact related to Jacenko. But even though it’s probably fictional, what they chose to add to her profile was intriguing.
They added that her husband was convicted of insider trading (true), that she left SAS after 6 hours (true), that Jacenko was possibly her own Poo Jogger (reportedly false), and this, completely unverified, anecdote:
“Roxy is my cousin and I’m embarrassed by her display. I remember her demanding to go home from camp when we were in the brownies together. She wouldn’t walk the 2km round trip hike up and down hills. She got her way and daddy picked her up.”
I sent Jacenko a DM about this but she has not responded.
And so, the only other trail is Roxy’s cousin who left no contact details before being banned.
Roxy’s cousin, if you’re reading this: DM me.
CONSPIRACY CORNER
The question on everyone’s lips is ‘how have Australian conspiracy theorists responded to Donald Trump’s defeat?’
The answer is, rather boringly, essentially like every American conspiracy theorist.
Some are talking about election fraud. Others are claiming that this is all part of some master plan by Donald Trump.
And some are posting whatever this is:
(in case you want to know what the hair means, here’s a tweet)
If I may do some self-promo: I’ve published a deep dive into how Sky News Australia has gone from a niche network watched only by politicians to a digital powerhouse. Also, I reported that Australian MP George Christensen followed a bunch of white nationalist and conspiracy Facebook pages.
For anyone interested, I was fairly transparent about my reporting methods in both of them. Please contact me if you have any questions about how it worked(or just want to bounce a story idea off me.)Eden Gillespie did a great story about how an online forum was rife with non-consensual image abuse of underage women. I think this is way more common than people realise. (Also bonus points: Eden said that at least one woman’s images were taken down afterwards, so snaps for impactful reporting).
Lavender Baj wrote about a couple of Aussies scamming hundreds of thousands of dollars from other kids through the video game NBA 2K.
My former BuzzFeed colleague Ryan Broderick co-hosts a really insightful internet culture podcast called Content Mines. I’ve always learned a lot from him, but the analysis Ryan and the other host Luke Bailey on the show is really something else. Their latest episode on the US election and the idea of Facebook creating a bloc of low-trust voters is a stellar example of that.
One of Australia’s most popular TikTok accounts @CleanWithMe1401 is someone who just cleans stuff. It’s really satisfying to watch.
If you liked this and don’t want to wait for 4 months for the next one, the best way to make sure it doesn’t happen again is to socially pressure me by sending it onto others.
I’d be very grateful!
xo,
P.S. I am ALWAYS looking for tips for weird / interesting / important internet stuff. Please email or DM me if you see anything I might be interested in. Nothing is too niche.