Indy Clinton has divulged more details of her response to online hate, months after revealing she had hired a private investigator to identify her trolls.
ICYMI, the Aussie influencer took to her social media channels in July to put her trolls on notice, saying she had consulted with a PI “to find out who some of the horrible people are behind these accounts”.
Clinton said she has been consistently hounded by social media users about everything from her physical appearance to her parenting and her fashion.
At the time, Clinton said the investigation turned up a 64-page dossier filled with details of her trolls, right down to their Australian Business Numbers, where they gave birth, their tattoo designs, and even the name of their gynaecologist.
Now, the influencer has lifted the lid on exactly what went into the investigation, including how much it cost and the company responsible for identifying her haters.
“The investigation took 12 weeks and was incredibly thorough,” Clinton said in an interview with Stellar magazine.
She said she spent $8,000 on the private investigator from a Sydney-based firm called Cybertrace, which specialises in cybercrime investigations including fraud and online harassment.
“I found personal information from 15 of my [most prolific] trolls,” Clinton said.
The personal information ranged from their home addresses, their jobs, their hairdressers and even “one of their mobile numbers, based off an image of their cat they uploaded to Pinterest”, Clinton said.
While she had initially assumed most of her trolls would be young girls, Clinton said the “craziest statistic” from the investigation was that most of the accounts belonged to mothers.
“The majority of these people are mothers with multiple children, and some had high-paying jobs. Two of them are lawyers. One works in HR,” she said.
As for what she intends to do with the information, Clinton said she’s been “in contact” with lawyers, who’ve advised her that she “can go for defamation and harassment”.
“I would love to take it further with every single one of [the trolls], but I don’t know if I have the time and energy,” Clinton added.
Beyond that, Clinton said she is putting effort into her #URNotAnon hashtag, a movement aimed at reminding social media users they are not anonymous.
It comes after fellow Aussie TikToker, Fidan Shevket, likewise revealed the legal steps she had taken to uncover her trolls, with Clinton showing her support for the move on social media.
Lead images: Indy Clinton/Instagram
