May 27, 2025 • 35 mins
The Diddy trial isn’t just playing out in court—it’s being weaponized online. In this episode, Bridget exposes how content creators and AI-generated narratives are distorting facts, feeding conspiracies, reinforcing stereotypes, and turning real allegations into viral fan fiction clickbait.
This isn’t just about Diddy. It’s about the future of truth online.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
There Are No Girls on the Internet. As a production
of iHeartRadio and Unbossed Creative. I'm Bridget Todd and this
is There Are No Girls on the Internet. So I
have to start with a quick heads up because this
episode will deal with some pretty rough stuff sexual and
physical violence. Because today we're talking about the trial of
(00:26):
music mogul Sean P. Diddy Combs. Now, this trial has
been a long time coming. If you're familiar with the
music group Danny Kane, which was formed on MTV's Making
the Band reality show in two thousand and five, which
comb signed to his record label, Bad Boy Records, then
you've probably heard rumors about Sean Diddy Combs for a while.
(00:46):
And honestly, the women of Dandy Kine were kind of
treated like crazy liars when they spoke off about Diddy.
But now those same women are speaking up in a
courtroom giving testimony for the States case against him. It's
important to know that Shawn Combs is more than just
a musician. He's one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood,
and his influence reaches far beyond just entertainment, from media
(01:09):
and politics to tech. Combs really does sit at the
crossroads of power take Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter, Combs
was one of his investors, and when questions started swirling
about how the platform handled things like racial slurs, Elon
Musk tried to ease concerns by pointing to his personal
friendship with Ditty, saying, quote, Pok's a good friend of mine.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
We text a lot.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
So what's unbolding with Shawn Combs right now is not
just another celebrity story. It's a story about power, who
holds it, how it's protected, and how social media can
be used not just to shape the narrative, but how
it's also used to reinforce harmful attitudes and tropes that
silence victims.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
And shield the elite.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Now, as soon as I saw that Ditty was arrested
back in twenty twenty four, I knew it was going
to be a storm of disinformation, gendered tropes, and has
truths online. I've actually been following some of how it's
played out online since then, So now seems like a
great opportunity to get into all of it. So I'll
give a little bit of an overview of the charges
against Combs, some highlights on the trial which is ongoing.
(02:13):
Then dig into some of the narratives I've seen online
and what it all means about power, celebrity and our
current online culture. So here's the basics of the charges
against Sean Diddy Combs. Combs is facing two different sets
of charges, civil charges from mostly women but some men,
who are accusing him of a wide range of sexual crimes,
and five criminal counts. One count of racketeering conspiracy, two
(02:37):
counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or corrosion, and
two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Those five
criminal charges are what this trial is about. Basically, the
government says that Shawn Combs used his business enterprise to
conduct a criminal sex trafficking and kidnapping ring, and that
he used his money, celebrity, and power to intimidate the
(02:58):
victims and cover up crimes. Now, I have to say
I have been really disappointed in how I've seen some
folks talk about this but talking about his actions as
like sex parties, which he called quote freak offs. And
I want to be super clear, Combs is not facing
charges of being freaky or having freaky sex or freaky
(03:19):
sex parties. And everybody knows that real freaky people create
a culture of consent. What he is being accused of
is being the ring leader of a massive criminal enterprise
that included subjecting people to a pattern of physical and
sexual abuse. This is according to federal prosecutors. Investigators alleged
that over a span of years, Combs would apply victims
(03:39):
with drugs and resort to violence and intimidation during days
long sex sessions. He did not do these things alone,
according to prosecutors, although right now no one else has
been criminally charged in the case, Combs allegedly had assistants, managers,
and security staff who made sure that women and male
sex workers were present during these freak off events, and
(03:59):
that tell rooms where they were staged were supplied with
things like lubricant and baby oil. In fact, if there
is one thing that you've probably heard about this case,
even if you haven't been paying attention to it, it's
that investigators took thousands of bottles of baby oil out
of Shawn Combs's home after a raid that they say
were used in these sessions. This detail was publicized right
(04:20):
after Didi's arrest last year, and this is kind of
a common tactic of prosecutions drop a salacious detail that
sure to make headlines. The criminal trial against Combs is ongoing,
but here are a few key points from the trial
so far. I'll focus on a testimony of four people
(04:41):
in this summary. One of the victims at the heart
of this whole situation Cassie Ventura, rapper Kid Cutty, who
she brisly dated, Cassie's former friend Carrie Morgan, and Cassie's mother.
So Cassie Ventura is sort of the voice at the
center of what's going on. The R and B singer
was in a personal and professional relationship with Shawn Combs
for over decade. Her lawsuit was really the watershed suit
(05:03):
that preceded all the other charges. In November of twenty
twenty three, she filed a lawsuit against Combs alleging years
of sexual, emotional, and physical abuse. The lawsuit also named
Combs's businesses, bad Boy Entertainment, bad Boy Records, Epic Records,
and Cohn's Enterprise. Just to day after filing, they ended
up settling the trafficking, rape, and physical assault part of
(05:25):
the case out of court. They actually settled within hours
of Cassie filing, but her willingness to come forward really
opened the floodgates for dozens of other lawsuits against Combs.
The background of how they got involved with each other,
I think is pretty telling. Cassie met Diddy when she
was only nineteen years old and he was thirty seven.
They started dating, and a year later Cassie signed a
(05:47):
deal with his record company, bad Boy Entertainment and released
her first self titled debut album. Now, if you know
anything about army music, it has been a long time
question of why Cassie's music career never really took off
off the way that it probably should have. You know,
she put out one pretty successful album and then didn't
put out another album for six years, despite being in
(06:09):
a creative and romantic partnership with one of the most
powerful locals in music. I remember there was this feeling
in the space of like, what is happening with Cassie's career.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
While her lawsuit really shed some light into.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
What was going on, her suit allege is that this
was all happening at the very beginning of Combs's coercion
and abuse, which took over her life and included things
like forcing her to take drugs, forcing her to be
involved with male sex workers. During these events where participants
(06:41):
would have sex for hours while Combs would film her
and frequent beatings. Her lawsuit stated that the beatings were
often witnessed by Comb's staff, who are employees of bad
Boy Entertainment and Combs's affiliated businesses. Now we've actually seen
evidence of some of this. Earlier this year, CNN published
footage of Combs attacking Cassie in a hotel lobby. Prosecutors
(07:04):
alleged that there was a male sex worker still in
their hotel room at the time of the surveillance video recording.
Prosecutors in court also quoted text messages from Cassie talking
about the bruises and the fat lip that she received
as a result of the beating from Combs shown in
the surveillance video. Now, initially, Combs denied all wrongdoing and
implied that Cassie was just lying for money until the
(07:27):
release of that surveillance footage. He initially was able to
get that footage buried because he allegedly paid off the
hotel security. After that footage was released, I guess there
was no denying it and did. He settled with Cassie
basically within the day, but still legal pressure against him.
Mountain I have to be honest, Cassie's testimony in court
over the last few days has been difficult to listen to.
(07:49):
I should mention she's currently eight months pregnant, so she
was giving all this testimony while like heavily pregnant. She
described numerous instances of physical and sexual violence by Combs,
including being kicked, punched, and dragged. Comb's former assistant backs
all of this up and his testimony to the court,
telling the court that one notable incident occurred on a
(08:09):
private jet in twenty fifteen where Cassie screamed for help.
She screamed, isn't anybody seeing this during an assault? But
no one intervened. Cassie testified that Combs forced her into
these drug fueled sexual encounters with male sex workers, the
freak offs as he called them, which Combs orchestrated and filmed.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Now.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I won't get into all the details here, but the
stuff that she says happened during those events is really unpleasant.
And then he allegedly used these recordings to blackmail her
and would It's threatened to release these videos if she
did not follow his demands.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
She also talks about how he exerted a lot of
control over her personal and professional life, including monitoring her
communications and movements. She describes these very creepy instances where
he would just appear on announced at her locations, indicating
that he was probably tracking her. So for a while
while when Cassi in Combs briefly split, she had a
(09:03):
short relationship with rapper Kid Cutty, who also testified before
the court. Cutty testified that in December of twenty eleven,
Combs allegedly broke into his La home, and during that
break in, he unwrapped Christmas gifts and locked Cutty's dog
in a bathroom. A few weeks after this break in,
Cutty's Porsche was destroyed by a Molotov cocktail explosion. He
(09:24):
testified that he believes Combs was behind that attack. So
after Cutty's car was fire bombed in January of twenty twelve,
which he blamed Combs for, he was like, I have
to meet Comb's in person and figure this out. He said.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
They met in an La hotel meeting room and Combs
was quote staring at the window with his hands behind
his back like a marble super villain.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
It was just him and I in the room.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
We discussed the whole story of how Cassie and I
started to date and how it ended. His whole point was,
you were with my girl, and I said. She told
me you were broken up, and I took her word
for it. He was calm, and he offered me water twice.
It was very off putting. It was weird. She was
so calm. Cassie eventually came. I was upset to find
that she was back with him. She pretty much explained
that we fell in love and things just happened. Cassie
(10:08):
said that she broke up with Cuddy after Combs told
her that quote he was going to hurt the both
of us. I also want to include a little bit
of testimony from a woman named Carrie Morgan, Cassie's former
best friend. She said that Combs once choked her and
hit her with a wooden coat hanger, trying to get
her to reveal who Cassie was allegedly cheating with. This
incident led to Combs having to pay her thirty thousand
(10:31):
dollars for her to keep quiet, and ultimately ended her
almost twenty year friendship with Cassie. She testified that Cassie
told her that she thought that she was milking it
and over exaggerating. Her friend had basically had enough, She
signed an NDA and her and Cassie never spoke again.
I wanted to include her testimony because she really is
(10:51):
an outside person with no real connection to this situation anymore.
So when people try to say this is all some
kind of a conspiracy against Colmbs, why would someone who
hasn't spoken up for years, is no longer connected to
either party, and just as she puts it, wants to
quote move on with her life, want to be involved
in a conspiracy to take down Shawn Colmbs. I found
(11:11):
the testimony of Cassie's mother, Regina, to be amongst the
most heartbreaking, other than the testimony from Cassie herself. Cassie's
mom said that she was once forced to pay Comb's
twenty thousand dollars. Essentially, she says that Combs was angry
because Cassie was involved with Kid Cutty. He's threatened to
release tapes of Cassie's involuntary participation with the male sex workers.
Regina said that in twenty eleven, Combs threatened Cassie via
(11:34):
email after learning that her and Kidcutty were dating. In
this email, which was read in the court, did. He
threaten to release two different sex types of Cassie, including
one that will be released on Christmas Day. He also
threatened Cassie and Kid Cutty, saying that they would be
physically harmed, although not by his hands. Cassie's mom said, quote,
it was understood that he was going to need twenty
(11:55):
thousand dollars to recoup money he had already spent on
her because he was angry that she had had a
relationship with Kitcutti. He was angry that he had spent
money on her and that she was with another person.
Cassie's mom and her husband said they had to take
out a home equity loan to fulfill the payment that
Combs allegedly demanded because it was really the only way
they can get the money. Cassie's mom also photographed all
(12:15):
of Cassie's injuries from Diddy, which were pretty significant. So
that's where things are at with this testimony as of
recording this on May twenty third. All of those claims
were made in court under oath. Those are just the
facts of the situation. But like most things these days,
this is not only playing out in court, it's also
playing out online. So I want to pipot to talk
about how this conversation has been going down on the internet.
(12:38):
So I have seen so many well worn tropes about
what is happening play out online. The first is the obvious,
the gold digger trope. This trope has already made a
few appearances at the trial. Combs's lawyer said in his
opening statement, So when you hear from the witnesses who
testify here, who will tell you they were victimized, asked yourself,
(12:59):
what is their motive?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
For many of them? The answer is simple money. His
lawyer referred to Cassie's civil suit as quote, a money grab.
And then the defense lawyer posed this question to the jury,
how many millions of reasons does this witness swearing to
tell the truth and nothing but the truth have to lie.
But here's my thing. Cassie already settled her civil suit
(13:22):
with Ditty. He settled within hours. So how could.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Cassie testifying as the state's witness in this criminal trial
be about money? Another well worn trope that I've seen
a lot online is why didn't she leave?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
She's an adult, she could have just left.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
This one is so baffling to me because we have
actual video surveillance footage of exactly what happened when she
tried to leave. When she left one of these sex
events at a hotel, Combs followed her, physically attacked her,
and physically dragged her back to his hotel room.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
So that's why she didn't leave. He also tried to
blow up kid Cutty's car when she left homes for
him when she tried to leave, her mom had to
put up her home as collateral to give twenty thousand
dollars to a multi millionaire to keep him from releasing
videos of her and humiliating sex acts.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
So all of that is why she couldn't leave. I mean,
anybody who knows anything about how abuse works would understand this,
but especially under these kinds of circumstances. And this is
such a common trope used against abused women that it
feels like a cliche. Abusers use emotional manipulation to isolate
and control their partners. Perversely, abuse can sometimes cause victims
(14:31):
to feel even more connected to their abusers through the
process of trauma bonding, which can happen when cycles of
abuse are interspersed with moments of affection. Cassie basically says
as much during the trial, she testified that at the
time when all of the stuff was going down, she
still had a lot of complicated love for Combs because
they had been in a relationship for over a decade,
and obviously that emotional rollercoaster of highs and lows can
(14:53):
create really confusing emotional ties. Add with that, the fear
of physical violence, which we saw and is not in
dispute or other forms of retribution, can keep victims of
abuse trapped in relationships, which the testimony from Cassie and
others certainly suggest was a big factor here.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Let's take a quick break at her back.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
So we're talking about how all these well worn trophes
about survivors have been showing up in the trial against
Sean P.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
To B.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Combs, and how they continue to discredit people from speaking up.
Another trope I've seen online is the idea that Cassie
wanted this, She must have wanted this kind of behavior
from Combs. Combs's legal team did a great job to
portray her as a woman who, as they put it,
made voluntary adult choices. They actually had Cassie read text
messagers that she had written to Combs in court where
(15:54):
she said things that maybe could be construed like she
was into what was going on, but Cassie says at
that point she was really just trying to placate him
and that it was really just words that she was typing.
She describes how she would have these big events or
premieres coming up, and that she was just doing these
things and pretending to go along with them just to
try to keep him under control so that he wouldn't
(16:14):
ruin and blow up more aspects of her life. And truly,
can there really be any consent in a situation where
both parties agree there is control, abuse and coercion. Okay,
So another trope I've seen a lot online is that
the people who are speaking out are rats. They're going
against somebody just because they're rats. The rapper Young Thug
essentially called Kid Cutty a snitch for testifying at all.
(16:38):
But let's be real, Combs broke into his house and
blew up his car and Kid Cutty stayed silent about
it for ten years until he was subpoened by the
Feds to testify. So this is not someone who was
just like out looking to thing like a canary against
somebody who's wrong them.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
And by the way, if somebody blew up my car.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
You best believe I would tell anybody who would listen
about it right away. A kind of shade of that
trope that I've also seen online is that Cassie and
the other people speaking out are just trying to tear
down a black man. And this one is the trope
that I would say bothers me the most, because I
think that there is a certain subsect of people for
whom a powerful, visible black man will never be able
(17:21):
to do anything wrong and should always be shielded from accountability,
even if we have video evidence of him doing something wrong.
And I think we see some version of this that
comes out anytime a famous or visible black man is
accused of a crime, Like we're all supposed to just
stay silent and protect an abuser because he is a
black man who is doing good in the community or
(17:41):
you know, trying to help his people, or whatever you
want to say. And it just makes me wonder, like,
why is it that this black man is more worthy
of protection, but the black woman he abused isn't, And
that the whole dynamic is that she's meant to stay
silent so that he can continue to masquerade as a
black man worth protecting.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
You know, this is all about power, coercion and control,
and honestly, to me, it's comparable to what we saw
with Jeffrey Epstein when I was covering Epstein for an
earlier episode of their No Girls on the Internet. What
really struck me was the way that Epstein intentionally ingratiated
himself into the upper echelons of the tech world through
things like his donations to MIT's renowned Media Lab and
(18:23):
other respected institutions. He did this with intention to shield
himself from accountability for his vast crimes, and this is
a tried and true abuser tactic. Ditty was known for
his iconic White Party, which was a who's who of
a lists celebrities and moguls. He donated to all the
right causes, you know, he donated a million dollars to
(18:44):
his alma mater and my old workplace, Howard University, right
here in DC. Basically trying to keep anybody from calling
him out, because look at.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
All these good things I have done. Could all these
good causes I stand for? Even Ditty's attorney said in
a statement, Sean Ditty combs as a music icon, self
made entrepreneur, loving family man and proven philanthropist who has
spent the last thirty years building an empire, adoring his children,
and working to uplift the black community. This is kind
of a side note, but y'all might remember that Ditty's
(19:13):
public persona kind of shifted in twenty seventeen when he
started asking people to call him.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Love instead of Ditty.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
He had a baby daughter in twenty twenty two, so
you know, how could he be a sex criminal?
Speaker 2 (19:25):
He has a daughter. He named his daughter.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Love, which is also the title of his first solo
studio album in seventeen years, which came out in twenty
twenty three. There's also this glowing New York Times puff
piece that I think really helped him paint this new persona.
I have to read a few gems of how the
New York Times really helped launder this new reputation that
he was trying to foster for himself. He talks about therapy.
(19:51):
He said it probably most likely really saved my brain,
because when you have a genius brain, it is also
a crazy brain. He talks about how he continue to
try to understand life beyond the conventional earthly plane, saying
I'm a big old hippie, said Combs, who has attended
multiple Burning Man festivals. I had a little bit of
ego left in me, and when I did Toad, I
(20:13):
officially had an ego death. Toad is the drug DMT,
and it's honestly giving that joke. Men need to do
psychedelics to have the same psychological revelation that most girls
have had since they were fourteen. So basically it's I
have done all these great things. I am now a
loving and centered family man. I could not also be
(20:34):
a criminal. It's what Harvey Weinstein did, It's what Bill
Cosby did, It's what r Kelly did, and now it
is what Diddy is doing. So this is what I hate.
How there are real people who were hurt in this case,
but of course, in our current digital media climate, it
just becomes another way to callously score political points in
the ever running culture war. So the reality is is
(20:55):
that Diddy, in building his public persona to protect him
from accountability, is cozy with lots of famous people, Democrats,
Republicans of their celebrities. When you look through the different
pictures of who has been photographed with Ditty over the years,
it's basically everyone. None of this should be surprising because
it's of course intentional. You might recall that he had
a voting initiative called Vote or Die. He endorsed both
(21:16):
Obama and Biden, which of course Fox News made a
huge production about while glossing over his documented connections to Trump.
This actually became a thing during the twenty twenty four election,
when right before the election, the account Trump fact News
posted a picture of Harris and Didty, saying, never forget
how Harris got her start. She's no stranger to Diddy
parties in Los Angeles either, So this is obviously a
(21:39):
reference to the common lie hurled at Harris that she
quote slept her way.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
To the top. But the picture is not even of
Harris and Diddy. It's of Harris and talk show host
Montell Williams, who Kamala Harris actually did date twenty years ago.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Montell Williams replied, here they go again, with all black
people look alike. In September of twenty twenty four, a
pro Trump meme account on X called the Right to
Bear Memes posted a doctored version of a photo taken
by Montell Williams in two thousand and one at a
charity event The picture is basically like they just put
Sean Combs's head on William's body. It's like obviously a
(22:15):
very bad photoshop if you look at it for more
than five seconds, but it prompted the comment the Ditty
client list goes all the way to the top, posted
by red Pill USA, a major pro Trump conspiracy account,
and it was viewed over a million times on truth
Social Trump himself reposted and then deleted an image of
Harris with Ditty's face photoshopped over Montell Williams's with the
(22:36):
caption Kamala doing the diddy Madam Vice President, have you
ever been involved or engaged in one of puff Daddy's
freak offs? He did delete that, thankfully, But this was
just the beginning of all the disinformation and being spread
about this case.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
More after a quick break, let's get right back into it.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
So this trial is not being shown on television.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
If you're not physically at the trial or following the
reporting of somebody who is, you might not have any
real clue what is happening. So people online can and
are saying just about anything to capitalize on the clicking
engagement of this trial.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Here's a few examples of what I mean.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
One rumor that I saw everywhere online while the trial
was going on was the claim that prosecutors presented as
evidence a secret recording of prints exposing Colombes's crimes. The
rumor said that in Prince's final days alive, he filmed
the video that said if something happens to me, this
recording needs to go to.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
The press or the police, either one. This is simply false,
not true, never happened.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
And we've got to talk about this because typically I
don't think it's good to amplify random conspiracy theories that
pop up online, because sometimes it ends up that you're
just helping a random video that nobody was probably ever
really going to see anyway. Outside of these niche pockets
of the Internet get more traction and oxygen, and a
lot of times that's true. But I wanted to talk
about this one involving Prince, because this particular conspiracy theory
(24:15):
was not just staying in one niche corner of the Internet.
I've seen this particular false claim about Prince all over
the web, to the point where mainstream news outlets like
Yahoo had to publish pieces debunking it because they were
getting so much traction, and I think it reveals a
lot about why this kind of AI generated conspiracy theory
content works. They blow up something that has a grain
(24:37):
of actual truth to it, or something that fits an
existing pattern or story that we already know or already
align with, and then project this entire fictional world onto it.
So in nineteen ninety three, Prince famously changed his name
from Prince to the artist formerly known as Prince in
a public dispute over how much control his record label,
Warner Brothers had over his music. So the grain of
(24:59):
truth is that Prince was somebody who went up against
powerful figures in the entertainment industry. So this particular false
claim really does align with my existing worldview about Prince,
which is why it works so well. And Prince died
really suddenly, so of course there will always be conspiracy
surrounding his death, like maybe he was killed by those
(25:20):
very same powerful forces that he was trying to call
out and dismantle. So then when you hear about the
ways that Diddy, who actually is a powerful force at entertainment,
used his power to abuse and control others, it makes
sense why this is the AI conspiracy that really hits
and takes off and gets traction because at its core
it has a grain of truth to it, and it
(25:40):
aligns with the kind of conspiracy that our brains love,
you know, a story about a beloved figure being taken
out by a powerful evil force he was trying to
take down. In fact, I have to admit that when
I was watching some of these Prince Diddy conspiracy videos
for this episode, I found myself going from watching it
critically to at a certain point catching myself almost kind
of getting lost in the story because the story is
(26:02):
that good, Like I could see myself sharing this video
and if I wasn't already tuned into accurate coverage of
the trial, I m not even believe this actually happened
in the courtroom, even though it didn't, because it aligned
so well with my pre existing worldview. And honestly, that's
what AI and LM's are so good at reflecting our
(26:22):
own world's back at us, and it seems like that's
why they were really able to hit a home run
with this Prince Diddy AI conspiracy theories. So where did
this Diddy Prince video come from? Well, it came from
a YouTube channel called what is My Star Wars, which
posted the video titled Prince's Secret Recording Just Shattered Ditty's Trial.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Then the video spread to Blue Sky, Facebook threads, TikTok x,
and other places on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
So I took a look at that channel and it
is essentially very obviously AI generated fan fiction that gets
so many views.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
They have created video after video after a video falsely
linking the biggest celebrities to the Combs trial. Most of
the videos follow the same formula.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
They start with an AI generated voice narrator saying, before
we begin, viewer discretion is strongly advised. The following is
for educational and entertainment purposes only. But then in the
very next sentence, the narrator says, this is the verbatim
federal courtroom testimony of the Sean Ditty Combs trial, as
reported by Inner City Press.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
When no, it's not.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
One video called Oprah Fux Ditty claims that Oprah was
present at one of Ditty's hotel sex sessions and that
the actress Monique has named Oprah, Tyler Perry and others.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
As being involved. That video has only been up for
four days and it already has one point.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Five million views. And again this is pure fiction. None
of these people testified. None of these people are even
involved in any of this. As somebody who studies conspiracy
theory and how they move online, when I look at
this page, I can sort of immediately clock what's going
on when you go back a little further in the
content before switching over to all ditty content. The channel
(28:11):
was sort of cycling through this format of having a
public figure in some sort of sad situation. It's generally
an AI generated image of a sad looking celebrity, and then.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
It'll say the shocking truth about Christopher.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Walkin seemed to implying that, like something bad is happening
in his life.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Now.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Their early videos seem to have done all right in
terms of views, but the Diddy videos really hit, so
of course they're going to keep producing them. And honestly,
it seems like any celebrity you want dead or alive
can be mixed up in the Diddy stuff. Elvis, Wendy Williams,
Whitney Houston, will Smith, according to this channel, have all
(28:50):
appeared in the courtroom to give explosive testimony. But like
I said, it's just fan fiction, except in my opinion,
they're obviously going out of their way to make it
look real. And it's interesting how they pick celebrities that
have some level of conspiracy theory kind of around them already,
folks like Will Smith or Oprah. They pair that with
an AI generated image of that celebrity looking distraught on
(29:12):
the stand next to an AI generated Diddy, and.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
People actually believe it.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
I fully expected the comments on these videos to be
people calling it out as obvious fakes, but no, people
believe it. In one of these AI generated videos, they
claim that Samuel L. Jackson took the stand and made
a bombshell accusation claiming that Diddy groomed Lori Harvey and
that her stepfather, Steve Harvey, may have played a role
in serving his stepdaughter up to be abused by Diddy.
(29:40):
It says, the shocking testimony has sent shockwaves across the
entertainment industry and social media as the Harvey family's reputation
is suddenly thrown into question. Now there is a disclaim
worth at the very bottom that says this content is
fictional and intended for entertainment purposes only. No verified court
documents or official statements confirmed these claims, but that doesn't
stop people in the comment tents from talking about it
(30:01):
like it's real.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Here's a few comments.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
I always had this instinctive feeling that something was wrong
with Steve Harvey, Tyler Perry, Oprah, Kevin Hart, Michael Jackson, T. D.
Jakes and Martin Lawrence and others. I never understood why
folks on TV and movies maybe uncomfortable learning this.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Now I know God gave me this wonderful gift. Here's
another comment.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Samuel is a noble brother that appreciates fair game and order.
To see a colleague sacrifice his own daughter for gain
with a demonic, cold, calculating monster is an insult to
our entire culture. No mana should be that thirsty to
compromise his integrity for money. Steve pimped that girl. Samuel
is the one millions of us respect. And lastly, quote
how I wish I could have seen mister Jackson's testimony.
(30:42):
This could be a movie, and I hate to break
it to you, but you can't see mister Jackson's testimony
because it doesn't exist. It never happened. So even when
the coverage of the trial isn't straight up making up facts,
it still feels gross. People online are covering this trial.
At the recapping and Netflix series Friend of the podcast,
Francesca Ramsey made a great point that creators online are
(31:04):
rushing to do these breakdowns and coverage for engagement of
all these salacious details that make it seem with our
covering a fictional series, not the traumas of somebody else's life.
It's a bit of a sad commentary on the state
of our digital media ecosystem, which really does encourage everybody
to have an opinion, everybody to have a take, but
in doing so treats real people's lives like stories and
(31:26):
discourages empathy. And this kind of the fan fiction capturing
the nation's interest with this trial is not new. It
started the day that Ditty was arrested. Combs's late ex wife,
the model kim Porter, died very suddenly in twenty eighteen.
Her listed cause of death was pneumonia, but rumors have
swirled about her death since she died. After Ditty was arrested,
(31:48):
An LA based producer self published a quote mamoir of
kim Porter's on Amazon.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
The memoir was full.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Of pulpy, salacious claims about Sean Combs's past and crimes.
There are plenty of people breaking it down on TikTok,
but this memoir is probably completely bogus. The author, who
calls himself Chris Todd no relation, told Vanity Fair that
the memoir is based on a flash drive that Kim
Porter allegedly left behind after her death in twenty eighteen,
(32:18):
which also contained, he claims, quote tapes of Ditty with
celebrities and sexual situations. He said that he received portions
of the drive from a quote celebrity source who was
quote very close inside the Kim and Ditty hip hop circle.
In the Variety interview, Todd said, I'm not doing this
for the money. I'm the voice for the voiceless, although
he did acknowledge making a fair bit of money from
(32:40):
the fake book. He even told Rolling Stone that he
himself can't be sure if that memoir is real, saying,
if somebody put my feet to the fire and they
said life or death, is this book realed? I have
to say, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
But it's real enough to me.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Sometimes you just got to put it out there. Maybe
not one hundred percent of the book is true, but
maybe eighty percent is. That is to get those people
to come forward and either corroborate or deny the claims,
and that helps me as an investigator to know the truth.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
So even though the person who published.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
This memoir pretty much says it's probably not true, this
did not stop the book from shooting to the number
one spot on Amazon. Eventually, in October twenty twenty four,
after shooting to the number one spot, Amazon pulled it.
And that really says a lot to me that we
have a digital culture that really incentivizes just making stuff
up about something as serious as sex trafficking and sexual
(33:30):
abuse to make a quick book, whether through sales of
bogus memoirs or through online engagement through AI generated fan
fiction that has no grounding in reality. So what's next
for Ditty? While the trial continues, and according to Rolling Stone,
Combs's team is already working on a pardon from Trump
if he's convicted. Several longtime friends and allies of Combs
(33:51):
have already begun making connections to the Trump team with
hopes of laying the groundwork for a possible presidential pardon
if Combs is found guilty on the charges her Rolling Stone,
Combs's team is hoping to appeal to Trump by drawing
a comparison between their shared stories two successful businessmen allegedly
targeted by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New
York with baseless wink wink accusations of sexual assault. Combs
(34:15):
and Trump have reportedly maintained a friendly personal relationship for
over a decade.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Trump described Combs as.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Quote a good friend of mine during a twenty twelve
taping of Celebrity Apprentice and was a regular attendee at
his birthday parties.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
And you know what, I think it might work.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
I think if Diddy is convicted, I could see a
world where Trump pardons him. And they just want to
end by saying, survivors are watching that dig about Cassie
being a gold digger or somehow inviting her own abuse.
Cassie probably won't see it online, but you know who will, survivors.
Survivors are watching, and we're not going to stand for it.
(34:52):
Got a story about an interesting thing in tech. I
just want to say hi. You can reach us at
Hello at tengodi dot com. You can also find transcripts
for today's episode at tengo doi dot com.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
There Are No Girls on the Internet.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Was created by me Bridget tod It's a production of
iHeartRadio and Unbossed creative Jonathan Strickland is our executive producer.
Tarry Harrison is our producer and sound engineer. Michael Almato
is our contributing producer. I'm your host, Bridget Todd. If
you want to help us grow, rate and review.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Us on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts
There Are No Girls on the Internet. As a production
of iHeartRadio and Unbossed Creative. I'm Bridget Todd and this
is There Are No Girls on the Internet. So I
have to start with a quick heads up because this
episode will deal with some pretty rough stuff sexual and
physical violence. Because today we're talking about the trial of
(00:26):
music mogul Sean P. Diddy Combs. Now, this trial has
been a long time coming. If you're familiar with the
music group Danny Kane, which was formed on MTV's Making
the Band reality show in two thousand and five, which
comb signed to his record label, Bad Boy Records, then
you've probably heard rumors about Sean Diddy Combs for a while.
(00:46):
And honestly, the women of Dandy Kine were kind of
treated like crazy liars when they spoke off about Diddy.
But now those same women are speaking up in a
courtroom giving testimony for the States case against him. It's
important to know that Shawn Combs is more than just
a musician. He's one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood,
and his influence reaches far beyond just entertainment, from media
(01:09):
and politics to tech. Combs really does sit at the
crossroads of power take Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter, Combs
was one of his investors, and when questions started swirling
about how the platform handled things like racial slurs, Elon
Musk tried to ease concerns by pointing to his personal
friendship with Ditty, saying, quote, Pok's a good friend of mine.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
We text a lot.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
So what's unbolding with Shawn Combs right now is not
just another celebrity story. It's a story about power, who
holds it, how it's protected, and how social media can
be used not just to shape the narrative, but how
it's also used to reinforce harmful attitudes and tropes that
silence victims.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
And shield the elite.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Now, as soon as I saw that Ditty was arrested
back in twenty twenty four, I knew it was going
to be a storm of disinformation, gendered tropes, and has
truths online. I've actually been following some of how it's
played out online since then, So now seems like a
great opportunity to get into all of it. So I'll
give a little bit of an overview of the charges
against Combs, some highlights on the trial which is ongoing.
(02:13):
Then dig into some of the narratives I've seen online
and what it all means about power, celebrity and our
current online culture. So here's the basics of the charges
against Sean Diddy Combs. Combs is facing two different sets
of charges, civil charges from mostly women but some men,
who are accusing him of a wide range of sexual crimes,
and five criminal counts. One count of racketeering conspiracy, two
(02:37):
counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or corrosion, and
two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Those five
criminal charges are what this trial is about. Basically, the
government says that Shawn Combs used his business enterprise to
conduct a criminal sex trafficking and kidnapping ring, and that
he used his money, celebrity, and power to intimidate the
(02:58):
victims and cover up crimes. Now, I have to say
I have been really disappointed in how I've seen some
folks talk about this but talking about his actions as
like sex parties, which he called quote freak offs. And
I want to be super clear, Combs is not facing
charges of being freaky or having freaky sex or freaky
(03:19):
sex parties. And everybody knows that real freaky people create
a culture of consent. What he is being accused of
is being the ring leader of a massive criminal enterprise
that included subjecting people to a pattern of physical and
sexual abuse. This is according to federal prosecutors. Investigators alleged
that over a span of years, Combs would apply victims
(03:39):
with drugs and resort to violence and intimidation during days
long sex sessions. He did not do these things alone,
according to prosecutors, although right now no one else has
been criminally charged in the case, Combs allegedly had assistants, managers,
and security staff who made sure that women and male
sex workers were present during these freak off events, and
(03:59):
that tell rooms where they were staged were supplied with
things like lubricant and baby oil. In fact, if there
is one thing that you've probably heard about this case,
even if you haven't been paying attention to it, it's
that investigators took thousands of bottles of baby oil out
of Shawn Combs's home after a raid that they say
were used in these sessions. This detail was publicized right
(04:20):
after Didi's arrest last year, and this is kind of
a common tactic of prosecutions drop a salacious detail that
sure to make headlines. The criminal trial against Combs is ongoing,
but here are a few key points from the trial
so far. I'll focus on a testimony of four people
(04:41):
in this summary. One of the victims at the heart
of this whole situation Cassie Ventura, rapper Kid Cutty, who
she brisly dated, Cassie's former friend Carrie Morgan, and Cassie's mother.
So Cassie Ventura is sort of the voice at the
center of what's going on. The R and B singer
was in a personal and professional relationship with Shawn Combs
for over decade. Her lawsuit was really the watershed suit
(05:03):
that preceded all the other charges. In November of twenty
twenty three, she filed a lawsuit against Combs alleging years
of sexual, emotional, and physical abuse. The lawsuit also named
Combs's businesses, bad Boy Entertainment, bad Boy Records, Epic Records,
and Cohn's Enterprise. Just to day after filing, they ended
up settling the trafficking, rape, and physical assault part of
(05:25):
the case out of court. They actually settled within hours
of Cassie filing, but her willingness to come forward really
opened the floodgates for dozens of other lawsuits against Combs.
The background of how they got involved with each other,
I think is pretty telling. Cassie met Diddy when she
was only nineteen years old and he was thirty seven.
They started dating, and a year later Cassie signed a
(05:47):
deal with his record company, bad Boy Entertainment and released
her first self titled debut album. Now, if you know
anything about army music, it has been a long time
question of why Cassie's music career never really took off
off the way that it probably should have. You know,
she put out one pretty successful album and then didn't
put out another album for six years, despite being in
(06:09):
a creative and romantic partnership with one of the most
powerful locals in music. I remember there was this feeling
in the space of like, what is happening with Cassie's career.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
While her lawsuit really shed some light into.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
What was going on, her suit allege is that this
was all happening at the very beginning of Combs's coercion
and abuse, which took over her life and included things
like forcing her to take drugs, forcing her to be
involved with male sex workers. During these events where participants
(06:41):
would have sex for hours while Combs would film her
and frequent beatings. Her lawsuit stated that the beatings were
often witnessed by Comb's staff, who are employees of bad
Boy Entertainment and Combs's affiliated businesses. Now we've actually seen
evidence of some of this. Earlier this year, CNN published
footage of Combs attacking Cassie in a hotel lobby. Prosecutors
(07:04):
alleged that there was a male sex worker still in
their hotel room at the time of the surveillance video recording.
Prosecutors in court also quoted text messages from Cassie talking
about the bruises and the fat lip that she received
as a result of the beating from Combs shown in
the surveillance video. Now, initially, Combs denied all wrongdoing and
implied that Cassie was just lying for money until the
(07:27):
release of that surveillance footage. He initially was able to
get that footage buried because he allegedly paid off the
hotel security. After that footage was released, I guess there
was no denying it and did. He settled with Cassie
basically within the day, but still legal pressure against him.
Mountain I have to be honest, Cassie's testimony in court
over the last few days has been difficult to listen to.
(07:49):
I should mention she's currently eight months pregnant, so she
was giving all this testimony while like heavily pregnant. She
described numerous instances of physical and sexual violence by Combs,
including being kicked, punched, and dragged. Comb's former assistant backs
all of this up and his testimony to the court,
telling the court that one notable incident occurred on a
(08:09):
private jet in twenty fifteen where Cassie screamed for help.
She screamed, isn't anybody seeing this during an assault? But
no one intervened. Cassie testified that Combs forced her into
these drug fueled sexual encounters with male sex workers, the
freak offs as he called them, which Combs orchestrated and filmed.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Now.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I won't get into all the details here, but the
stuff that she says happened during those events is really unpleasant.
And then he allegedly used these recordings to blackmail her
and would It's threatened to release these videos if she
did not follow his demands.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
She also talks about how he exerted a lot of
control over her personal and professional life, including monitoring her
communications and movements. She describes these very creepy instances where
he would just appear on announced at her locations, indicating
that he was probably tracking her. So for a while
while when Cassi in Combs briefly split, she had a
(09:03):
short relationship with rapper Kid Cutty, who also testified before
the court. Cutty testified that in December of twenty eleven,
Combs allegedly broke into his La home, and during that
break in, he unwrapped Christmas gifts and locked Cutty's dog
in a bathroom. A few weeks after this break in,
Cutty's Porsche was destroyed by a Molotov cocktail explosion. He
(09:24):
testified that he believes Combs was behind that attack. So
after Cutty's car was fire bombed in January of twenty twelve,
which he blamed Combs for, he was like, I have
to meet Comb's in person and figure this out. He said.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
They met in an La hotel meeting room and Combs
was quote staring at the window with his hands behind
his back like a marble super villain.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
It was just him and I in the room.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
We discussed the whole story of how Cassie and I
started to date and how it ended. His whole point was,
you were with my girl, and I said. She told
me you were broken up, and I took her word
for it. He was calm, and he offered me water twice.
It was very off putting. It was weird. She was
so calm. Cassie eventually came. I was upset to find
that she was back with him. She pretty much explained
that we fell in love and things just happened. Cassie
(10:08):
said that she broke up with Cuddy after Combs told
her that quote he was going to hurt the both
of us. I also want to include a little bit
of testimony from a woman named Carrie Morgan, Cassie's former
best friend. She said that Combs once choked her and
hit her with a wooden coat hanger, trying to get
her to reveal who Cassie was allegedly cheating with. This
incident led to Combs having to pay her thirty thousand
(10:31):
dollars for her to keep quiet, and ultimately ended her
almost twenty year friendship with Cassie. She testified that Cassie
told her that she thought that she was milking it
and over exaggerating. Her friend had basically had enough, She
signed an NDA and her and Cassie never spoke again.
I wanted to include her testimony because she really is
(10:51):
an outside person with no real connection to this situation anymore.
So when people try to say this is all some
kind of a conspiracy against Colmbs, why would someone who
hasn't spoken up for years, is no longer connected to
either party, and just as she puts it, wants to
quote move on with her life, want to be involved
in a conspiracy to take down Shawn Colmbs. I found
(11:11):
the testimony of Cassie's mother, Regina, to be amongst the
most heartbreaking, other than the testimony from Cassie herself. Cassie's
mom said that she was once forced to pay Comb's
twenty thousand dollars. Essentially, she says that Combs was angry
because Cassie was involved with Kid Cutty. He's threatened to
release tapes of Cassie's involuntary participation with the male sex workers.
Regina said that in twenty eleven, Combs threatened Cassie via
(11:34):
email after learning that her and Kidcutty were dating. In
this email, which was read in the court, did. He
threaten to release two different sex types of Cassie, including
one that will be released on Christmas Day. He also
threatened Cassie and Kid Cutty, saying that they would be
physically harmed, although not by his hands. Cassie's mom said, quote,
it was understood that he was going to need twenty
(11:55):
thousand dollars to recoup money he had already spent on
her because he was angry that she had had a
relationship with Kitcutti. He was angry that he had spent
money on her and that she was with another person.
Cassie's mom and her husband said they had to take
out a home equity loan to fulfill the payment that
Combs allegedly demanded because it was really the only way
they can get the money. Cassie's mom also photographed all
(12:15):
of Cassie's injuries from Diddy, which were pretty significant. So
that's where things are at with this testimony as of
recording this on May twenty third. All of those claims
were made in court under oath. Those are just the
facts of the situation. But like most things these days,
this is not only playing out in court, it's also
playing out online. So I want to pipot to talk
about how this conversation has been going down on the internet.
(12:38):
So I have seen so many well worn tropes about
what is happening play out online. The first is the obvious,
the gold digger trope. This trope has already made a
few appearances at the trial. Combs's lawyer said in his
opening statement, So when you hear from the witnesses who
testify here, who will tell you they were victimized, asked yourself,
(12:59):
what is their motive?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
For many of them? The answer is simple money. His
lawyer referred to Cassie's civil suit as quote, a money grab.
And then the defense lawyer posed this question to the jury,
how many millions of reasons does this witness swearing to
tell the truth and nothing but the truth have to lie.
But here's my thing. Cassie already settled her civil suit
(13:22):
with Ditty. He settled within hours. So how could.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Cassie testifying as the state's witness in this criminal trial
be about money? Another well worn trope that I've seen
a lot online is why didn't she leave?
Speaker 2 (13:37):
She's an adult, she could have just left.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
This one is so baffling to me because we have
actual video surveillance footage of exactly what happened when she
tried to leave. When she left one of these sex
events at a hotel, Combs followed her, physically attacked her,
and physically dragged her back to his hotel room.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
So that's why she didn't leave. He also tried to
blow up kid Cutty's car when she left homes for
him when she tried to leave, her mom had to
put up her home as collateral to give twenty thousand
dollars to a multi millionaire to keep him from releasing
videos of her and humiliating sex acts.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
So all of that is why she couldn't leave. I mean,
anybody who knows anything about how abuse works would understand this,
but especially under these kinds of circumstances. And this is
such a common trope used against abused women that it
feels like a cliche. Abusers use emotional manipulation to isolate
and control their partners. Perversely, abuse can sometimes cause victims
(14:31):
to feel even more connected to their abusers through the
process of trauma bonding, which can happen when cycles of
abuse are interspersed with moments of affection. Cassie basically says
as much during the trial, she testified that at the
time when all of the stuff was going down, she
still had a lot of complicated love for Combs because
they had been in a relationship for over a decade,
and obviously that emotional rollercoaster of highs and lows can
(14:53):
create really confusing emotional ties. Add with that, the fear
of physical violence, which we saw and is not in
dispute or other forms of retribution, can keep victims of
abuse trapped in relationships, which the testimony from Cassie and
others certainly suggest was a big factor here.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Let's take a quick break at her back.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
So we're talking about how all these well worn trophes
about survivors have been showing up in the trial against
Sean P.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
To B.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
Combs, and how they continue to discredit people from speaking up.
Another trope I've seen online is the idea that Cassie
wanted this, She must have wanted this kind of behavior
from Combs. Combs's legal team did a great job to
portray her as a woman who, as they put it,
made voluntary adult choices. They actually had Cassie read text
messagers that she had written to Combs in court where
(15:54):
she said things that maybe could be construed like she
was into what was going on, but Cassie says at
that point she was really just trying to placate him
and that it was really just words that she was typing.
She describes how she would have these big events or
premieres coming up, and that she was just doing these
things and pretending to go along with them just to
try to keep him under control so that he wouldn't
(16:14):
ruin and blow up more aspects of her life. And truly,
can there really be any consent in a situation where
both parties agree there is control, abuse and coercion. Okay,
So another trope I've seen a lot online is that
the people who are speaking out are rats. They're going
against somebody just because they're rats. The rapper Young Thug
essentially called Kid Cutty a snitch for testifying at all.
(16:38):
But let's be real, Combs broke into his house and
blew up his car and Kid Cutty stayed silent about
it for ten years until he was subpoened by the
Feds to testify. So this is not someone who was
just like out looking to thing like a canary against
somebody who's wrong them.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
And by the way, if somebody blew up my car.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
You best believe I would tell anybody who would listen
about it right away. A kind of shade of that
trope that I've also seen online is that Cassie and
the other people speaking out are just trying to tear
down a black man. And this one is the trope
that I would say bothers me the most, because I
think that there is a certain subsect of people for
whom a powerful, visible black man will never be able
(17:21):
to do anything wrong and should always be shielded from accountability,
even if we have video evidence of him doing something wrong.
And I think we see some version of this that
comes out anytime a famous or visible black man is
accused of a crime, Like we're all supposed to just
stay silent and protect an abuser because he is a
black man who is doing good in the community or
(17:41):
you know, trying to help his people, or whatever you
want to say. And it just makes me wonder, like,
why is it that this black man is more worthy
of protection, but the black woman he abused isn't, And
that the whole dynamic is that she's meant to stay
silent so that he can continue to masquerade as a
black man worth protecting.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
You know, this is all about power, coercion and control,
and honestly, to me, it's comparable to what we saw
with Jeffrey Epstein when I was covering Epstein for an
earlier episode of their No Girls on the Internet. What
really struck me was the way that Epstein intentionally ingratiated
himself into the upper echelons of the tech world through
things like his donations to MIT's renowned Media Lab and
(18:23):
other respected institutions. He did this with intention to shield
himself from accountability for his vast crimes, and this is
a tried and true abuser tactic. Ditty was known for
his iconic White Party, which was a who's who of
a lists celebrities and moguls. He donated to all the
right causes, you know, he donated a million dollars to
(18:44):
his alma mater and my old workplace, Howard University, right
here in DC. Basically trying to keep anybody from calling
him out, because look at.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
All these good things I have done. Could all these
good causes I stand for? Even Ditty's attorney said in
a statement, Sean Ditty combs as a music icon, self
made entrepreneur, loving family man and proven philanthropist who has
spent the last thirty years building an empire, adoring his children,
and working to uplift the black community. This is kind
of a side note, but y'all might remember that Ditty's
(19:13):
public persona kind of shifted in twenty seventeen when he
started asking people to call him.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Love instead of Ditty.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
He had a baby daughter in twenty twenty two, so
you know, how could he be a sex criminal?
Speaker 2 (19:25):
He has a daughter. He named his daughter.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Love, which is also the title of his first solo
studio album in seventeen years, which came out in twenty
twenty three. There's also this glowing New York Times puff
piece that I think really helped him paint this new persona.
I have to read a few gems of how the
New York Times really helped launder this new reputation that
he was trying to foster for himself. He talks about therapy.
(19:51):
He said it probably most likely really saved my brain,
because when you have a genius brain, it is also
a crazy brain. He talks about how he continue to
try to understand life beyond the conventional earthly plane, saying
I'm a big old hippie, said Combs, who has attended
multiple Burning Man festivals. I had a little bit of
ego left in me, and when I did Toad, I
(20:13):
officially had an ego death. Toad is the drug DMT,
and it's honestly giving that joke. Men need to do
psychedelics to have the same psychological revelation that most girls
have had since they were fourteen. So basically it's I
have done all these great things. I am now a
loving and centered family man. I could not also be
(20:34):
a criminal. It's what Harvey Weinstein did, It's what Bill
Cosby did, It's what r Kelly did, and now it
is what Diddy is doing. So this is what I hate.
How there are real people who were hurt in this case,
but of course, in our current digital media climate, it
just becomes another way to callously score political points in
the ever running culture war. So the reality is is
(20:55):
that Diddy, in building his public persona to protect him
from accountability, is cozy with lots of famous people, Democrats,
Republicans of their celebrities. When you look through the different
pictures of who has been photographed with Ditty over the years,
it's basically everyone. None of this should be surprising because
it's of course intentional. You might recall that he had
a voting initiative called Vote or Die. He endorsed both
(21:16):
Obama and Biden, which of course Fox News made a
huge production about while glossing over his documented connections to Trump.
This actually became a thing during the twenty twenty four election,
when right before the election, the account Trump fact News
posted a picture of Harris and Didty, saying, never forget
how Harris got her start. She's no stranger to Diddy
parties in Los Angeles either, So this is obviously a
(21:39):
reference to the common lie hurled at Harris that she
quote slept her way.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
To the top. But the picture is not even of
Harris and Diddy. It's of Harris and talk show host
Montell Williams, who Kamala Harris actually did date twenty years ago.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Montell Williams replied, here they go again, with all black
people look alike. In September of twenty twenty four, a
pro Trump meme account on X called the Right to
Bear Memes posted a doctored version of a photo taken
by Montell Williams in two thousand and one at a
charity event The picture is basically like they just put
Sean Combs's head on William's body. It's like obviously a
(22:15):
very bad photoshop if you look at it for more
than five seconds, but it prompted the comment the Ditty
client list goes all the way to the top, posted
by red Pill USA, a major pro Trump conspiracy account,
and it was viewed over a million times on truth
Social Trump himself reposted and then deleted an image of
Harris with Ditty's face photoshopped over Montell Williams's with the
(22:36):
caption Kamala doing the diddy Madam Vice President, have you
ever been involved or engaged in one of puff Daddy's
freak offs? He did delete that, thankfully, But this was
just the beginning of all the disinformation and being spread
about this case.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
More after a quick break, let's get right back into it.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
So this trial is not being shown on television.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
If you're not physically at the trial or following the
reporting of somebody who is, you might not have any
real clue what is happening. So people online can and
are saying just about anything to capitalize on the clicking
engagement of this trial.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Here's a few examples of what I mean.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
One rumor that I saw everywhere online while the trial
was going on was the claim that prosecutors presented as
evidence a secret recording of prints exposing Colombes's crimes. The
rumor said that in Prince's final days alive, he filmed
the video that said if something happens to me, this
recording needs to go to.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
The press or the police, either one. This is simply false,
not true, never happened.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
And we've got to talk about this because typically I
don't think it's good to amplify random conspiracy theories that
pop up online, because sometimes it ends up that you're
just helping a random video that nobody was probably ever
really going to see anyway. Outside of these niche pockets
of the Internet get more traction and oxygen, and a
lot of times that's true. But I wanted to talk
about this one involving Prince, because this particular conspiracy theory
(24:15):
was not just staying in one niche corner of the Internet.
I've seen this particular false claim about Prince all over
the web, to the point where mainstream news outlets like
Yahoo had to publish pieces debunking it because they were
getting so much traction, and I think it reveals a
lot about why this kind of AI generated conspiracy theory
content works. They blow up something that has a grain
(24:37):
of actual truth to it, or something that fits an
existing pattern or story that we already know or already
align with, and then project this entire fictional world onto it.
So in nineteen ninety three, Prince famously changed his name
from Prince to the artist formerly known as Prince in
a public dispute over how much control his record label,
Warner Brothers had over his music. So the grain of
(24:59):
truth is that Prince was somebody who went up against
powerful figures in the entertainment industry. So this particular false
claim really does align with my existing worldview about Prince,
which is why it works so well. And Prince died
really suddenly, so of course there will always be conspiracy
surrounding his death, like maybe he was killed by those
(25:20):
very same powerful forces that he was trying to call
out and dismantle. So then when you hear about the
ways that Diddy, who actually is a powerful force at entertainment,
used his power to abuse and control others, it makes
sense why this is the AI conspiracy that really hits
and takes off and gets traction because at its core
it has a grain of truth to it, and it
(25:40):
aligns with the kind of conspiracy that our brains love,
you know, a story about a beloved figure being taken
out by a powerful evil force he was trying to
take down. In fact, I have to admit that when
I was watching some of these Prince Diddy conspiracy videos
for this episode, I found myself going from watching it
critically to at a certain point catching myself almost kind
of getting lost in the story because the story is
(26:02):
that good, Like I could see myself sharing this video
and if I wasn't already tuned into accurate coverage of
the trial, I m not even believe this actually happened
in the courtroom, even though it didn't, because it aligned
so well with my pre existing worldview. And honestly, that's
what AI and LM's are so good at reflecting our
(26:22):
own world's back at us, and it seems like that's
why they were really able to hit a home run
with this Prince Diddy AI conspiracy theories. So where did
this Diddy Prince video come from? Well, it came from
a YouTube channel called what is My Star Wars, which
posted the video titled Prince's Secret Recording Just Shattered Ditty's Trial.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Then the video spread to Blue Sky, Facebook threads, TikTok x,
and other places on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
So I took a look at that channel and it
is essentially very obviously AI generated fan fiction that gets
so many views.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
They have created video after video after a video falsely
linking the biggest celebrities to the Combs trial. Most of
the videos follow the same formula.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
They start with an AI generated voice narrator saying, before
we begin, viewer discretion is strongly advised. The following is
for educational and entertainment purposes only. But then in the
very next sentence, the narrator says, this is the verbatim
federal courtroom testimony of the Sean Ditty Combs trial, as
reported by Inner City Press.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
When no, it's not.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
One video called Oprah Fux Ditty claims that Oprah was
present at one of Ditty's hotel sex sessions and that
the actress Monique has named Oprah, Tyler Perry and others.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
As being involved. That video has only been up for
four days and it already has one point.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Five million views. And again this is pure fiction. None
of these people testified. None of these people are even
involved in any of this. As somebody who studies conspiracy
theory and how they move online, when I look at
this page, I can sort of immediately clock what's going
on when you go back a little further in the
content before switching over to all ditty content. The channel
(28:11):
was sort of cycling through this format of having a
public figure in some sort of sad situation. It's generally
an AI generated image of a sad looking celebrity, and then.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
It'll say the shocking truth about Christopher.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Walkin seemed to implying that, like something bad is happening
in his life.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Now.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Their early videos seem to have done all right in
terms of views, but the Diddy videos really hit, so
of course they're going to keep producing them. And honestly,
it seems like any celebrity you want dead or alive
can be mixed up in the Diddy stuff. Elvis, Wendy Williams,
Whitney Houston, will Smith, according to this channel, have all
(28:50):
appeared in the courtroom to give explosive testimony. But like
I said, it's just fan fiction, except in my opinion,
they're obviously going out of their way to make it
look real. And it's interesting how they pick celebrities that
have some level of conspiracy theory kind of around them already,
folks like Will Smith or Oprah. They pair that with
an AI generated image of that celebrity looking distraught on
(29:12):
the stand next to an AI generated Diddy, and.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
People actually believe it.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
I fully expected the comments on these videos to be
people calling it out as obvious fakes, but no, people
believe it. In one of these AI generated videos, they
claim that Samuel L. Jackson took the stand and made
a bombshell accusation claiming that Diddy groomed Lori Harvey and
that her stepfather, Steve Harvey, may have played a role
in serving his stepdaughter up to be abused by Diddy.
(29:40):
It says, the shocking testimony has sent shockwaves across the
entertainment industry and social media as the Harvey family's reputation
is suddenly thrown into question. Now there is a disclaim
worth at the very bottom that says this content is
fictional and intended for entertainment purposes only. No verified court
documents or official statements confirmed these claims, but that doesn't
stop people in the comment tents from talking about it
(30:01):
like it's real.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Here's a few comments.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
I always had this instinctive feeling that something was wrong
with Steve Harvey, Tyler Perry, Oprah, Kevin Hart, Michael Jackson, T. D.
Jakes and Martin Lawrence and others. I never understood why
folks on TV and movies maybe uncomfortable learning this.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Now I know God gave me this wonderful gift. Here's
another comment.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Samuel is a noble brother that appreciates fair game and order.
To see a colleague sacrifice his own daughter for gain
with a demonic, cold, calculating monster is an insult to
our entire culture. No mana should be that thirsty to
compromise his integrity for money. Steve pimped that girl. Samuel
is the one millions of us respect. And lastly, quote
how I wish I could have seen mister Jackson's testimony.
(30:42):
This could be a movie, and I hate to break
it to you, but you can't see mister Jackson's testimony
because it doesn't exist. It never happened. So even when
the coverage of the trial isn't straight up making up facts,
it still feels gross. People online are covering this trial.
At the recapping and Netflix series Friend of the podcast,
Francesca Ramsey made a great point that creators online are
(31:04):
rushing to do these breakdowns and coverage for engagement of
all these salacious details that make it seem with our
covering a fictional series, not the traumas of somebody else's life.
It's a bit of a sad commentary on the state
of our digital media ecosystem, which really does encourage everybody
to have an opinion, everybody to have a take, but
in doing so treats real people's lives like stories and
(31:26):
discourages empathy. And this kind of the fan fiction capturing
the nation's interest with this trial is not new. It
started the day that Ditty was arrested. Combs's late ex wife,
the model kim Porter, died very suddenly in twenty eighteen.
Her listed cause of death was pneumonia, but rumors have
swirled about her death since she died. After Ditty was arrested,
(31:48):
An LA based producer self published a quote mamoir of
kim Porter's on Amazon.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
The memoir was full.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Of pulpy, salacious claims about Sean Combs's past and crimes.
There are plenty of people breaking it down on TikTok,
but this memoir is probably completely bogus. The author, who
calls himself Chris Todd no relation, told Vanity Fair that
the memoir is based on a flash drive that Kim
Porter allegedly left behind after her death in twenty eighteen,
(32:18):
which also contained, he claims, quote tapes of Ditty with
celebrities and sexual situations. He said that he received portions
of the drive from a quote celebrity source who was
quote very close inside the Kim and Ditty hip hop circle.
In the Variety interview, Todd said, I'm not doing this
for the money. I'm the voice for the voiceless, although
he did acknowledge making a fair bit of money from
(32:40):
the fake book. He even told Rolling Stone that he
himself can't be sure if that memoir is real, saying,
if somebody put my feet to the fire and they
said life or death, is this book realed? I have
to say, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
But it's real enough to me.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Sometimes you just got to put it out there. Maybe
not one hundred percent of the book is true, but
maybe eighty percent is. That is to get those people
to come forward and either corroborate or deny the claims,
and that helps me as an investigator to know the truth.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
So even though the person who published.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
This memoir pretty much says it's probably not true, this
did not stop the book from shooting to the number
one spot on Amazon. Eventually, in October twenty twenty four,
after shooting to the number one spot, Amazon pulled it.
And that really says a lot to me that we
have a digital culture that really incentivizes just making stuff
up about something as serious as sex trafficking and sexual
(33:30):
abuse to make a quick book, whether through sales of
bogus memoirs or through online engagement through AI generated fan
fiction that has no grounding in reality. So what's next
for Ditty? While the trial continues, and according to Rolling Stone,
Combs's team is already working on a pardon from Trump
if he's convicted. Several longtime friends and allies of Combs
(33:51):
have already begun making connections to the Trump team with
hopes of laying the groundwork for a possible presidential pardon
if Combs is found guilty on the charges her Rolling Stone,
Combs's team is hoping to appeal to Trump by drawing
a comparison between their shared stories two successful businessmen allegedly
targeted by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New
York with baseless wink wink accusations of sexual assault. Combs
(34:15):
and Trump have reportedly maintained a friendly personal relationship for
over a decade.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Trump described Combs as.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Quote a good friend of mine during a twenty twelve
taping of Celebrity Apprentice and was a regular attendee at
his birthday parties.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
And you know what, I think it might work.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
I think if Diddy is convicted, I could see a
world where Trump pardons him. And they just want to
end by saying, survivors are watching that dig about Cassie
being a gold digger or somehow inviting her own abuse.
Cassie probably won't see it online, but you know who will, survivors.
Survivors are watching, and we're not going to stand for it.
(34:52):
Got a story about an interesting thing in tech. I
just want to say hi. You can reach us at
Hello at tengodi dot com. You can also find transcripts
for today's episode at tengo doi dot com.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
There Are No Girls on the Internet.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Was created by me Bridget tod It's a production of
iHeartRadio and Unbossed creative Jonathan Strickland is our executive producer.
Tarry Harrison is our producer and sound engineer. Michael Almato
is our contributing producer. I'm your host, Bridget Todd. If
you want to help us grow, rate and review.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Us on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts
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