An Irish tech entrepreneur has said that a defamation and harassment case he and his wife took against gossip website Tattle Life was a very complicated and complex legal and technical undertaking.
On Friday, Neil Sands and his wife Donna, who are based in Co Antrim, were awarded £300,000 in libel damages at the Belfast High Court as part of what has been described as a "landmark" legal battle to uncover the operator of Tattle Life.
Mr and Ms Sands won their defamation and harassment lawsuit over abusive comments posted on the site.
Tattle Life is an online forum, which attracts up to 12 million visitors a month, and has thousands of threads that allow people to comment on influencers, celebrities, and the general public.
Following the lifting of reporting restrictions on Friday, the defendants were identified as UK national Sebastian Bond and Hong Kong-registered companies Yuzu Zest Ltd and Kumquat Tree Ltd.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Sands said that the online space has "always been difficult to police" and given that he and his wife are business owners, their "online reputation is very important" to them.
He said he and his wife spent four years trying to track down the owner of Tattle Life.
He said the website describes itself as a "gossip site" but he said: "The reality is it's actually a well-designed forum for hate, harassment, defamation and stalking."
He explained that the comments escalated and innocent interactions he and his wife had with people were being recounted and published on the site and were "twisted" and "very defamatory".
Online regulations laws 'very opaque'
Mr Sands said this created momentum to act.
"We discovered as we dug into it, it was just so many people. They're not all influencers, they're just business owners that are affected by the site. So, we had to do something," he said.
He added that the laws around online regulation are "very opaque" and "difficult to navigate".
"We're just a normal couple. They're very big personalities and organisations and the police in several jurisdictions have tried to take down the website Tattle Life or make the owner accountable.
"And so it was quite a complex legal undertaking, but also a complex technical undertaking," Mr Sands said.
He said because he has a technical background, he was able to work with the legal team to uncover who was behind the site and pursue them through the courts.
Mr Sands said: "It's not an easy thing to speak about. And I can tell you that we're not alone in this phenomenon of online harassment.
"Thousands of people have reached out to us in the last 48 hours who have explained their stories, but for us, the online space was always quite a positive community."
'Toxic snowball'
Fashion designer Gail Doyle, founder of Gail's Rails, said being targeted on Tattle Life had a significant effect on her.
She told RTÉ News that her "horrible" experience with the website began in 2021 when she became the subject of negative speculation and commentary.
She described the experience as a "toxic snowball".
"I started by thinking what the hell is this and then I became obsessed with it, and it really affected my mental health," she said.
"Commentators would then start tearing me down, making horrendous comments about me, my business and then deeply personal comments about my family situation and details about my life off camera."
Ms Doyle said the accusations could "destroy your business" and "harm your reputation" if people believed them.
She said the situation "really affected" her and impacted her mental health.
"I couldn't understand the hate ... I was just ridiculed to the point where I thought I would have to close down the page and come offline, which would have damaged the business I had built up," she said.
Ms Doyle said she suspects that one or two the commentators may have had multiple account names, as the comments about her were so quick and relentless.
She is now calling for social media accounts to be verified and explained that she must submit ID to businesses when she wants to work with them online.
"Commentators should be verified too," she said, adding that it was "disturbing" that people can write "anything they like about you and attack your and your business and there is nothing you can do".
"My fashion design sales were good so I knew the business was going well with my customers, but then I'd go on the site and the stuff was horrible and it would just knock me."
Ms Doyle said a weight "lifted off my shoulders" when she heard Friday's judgement.
She thanked Neil and Donna Sands and said she is "incredibly grateful to them" for what they have done.
"We are all just women working really hard to set up our own brands that we are passionate about and this site just wants to damage us," she said.
