There Are No Girls on the Internet - Diddy Disinfo： How Creators are Using AI to Hijack the Trial for Clicks

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00:01:05.020 I survived nine months in captivity,

00:01:07.980 and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive

00:01:11.700 what should have destroyed them.

00:01:13.700 I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files.

00:01:17.400 Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable,

00:01:21.100 abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced.

00:01:24.740 These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive.

00:01:28.800 Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:01:40.460 There Are No Girls on the Internet is a production of iHeartRadio and Unbossed Creative.

00:01:48.560 I'm Bridget Todd, and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet.

00:01:51.280 So I have to start with a quick heads up because this episode will deal with some pretty rough 0.99

00:01:57.840 stuff, sexual and physical violence. Because today, we're talking about the trial of music

00:02:03.160 mogul Sean P. Diddy Combs. Now, this trial has been a long time coming. If you're familiar with

00:02:09.600 the music group Danity Cain, which was formed on MTV's Making the Band reality show in 2005,

00:02:15.860 which Combs signed to his record label, Bad Boy Records, then you've probably heard rumors about

00:02:20.780 Sean Diddy Combs for a while. And honestly, the women of Danny Cain were kind of treated like

00:02:26.860 crazy liars when they spoke up about Diddy. But now those same women are speaking up in a courtroom,

00:02:33.200 giving testimony for the state's case against him. It's important to know that Sean Combs is more

00:02:38.680 than just a musician. He's one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood, and his influence reaches

00:02:43.640 far beyond just entertainment, from media and politics to tech. Combs really does sit at the

00:02:49.820 crossroads of power. Take Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter. Combs was one of his investors. And when

00:02:56.680 questions started swirling about how the platform handled things like racial slurs, Elon Musk tried

00:03:02.020 to ease concerns by pointing to his personal friendship with Diddy, saying, quote, Puff's a

00:03:07.540 good friend of mine. We text a lot. So what's unfolding with Sean Combs right now is not just

00:03:13.860 another celebrity story. It's a story about power, who holds it, how it's protected, and how social

00:03:19.320 media can be used not just to shape the narrative, but how it's also used to reinforce harmful

00:03:24.500 attitudes and tropes that silence victims and shield the elite. Now, as soon as I saw that

00:03:30.040 Diddy was arrested back in 2024, I knew it was going to be a storm of disinformation, gendered

00:03:35.780 tropes, and half-truths online. I've actually been following some of how it's played out online

00:03:40.640 since then, so now seems like a great opportunity to get into all of it. So I'll give a little bit

00:03:45.920 of an overview of the charges against Combs, some highlights from the trial, which is ongoing,

00:03:50.340 then dig into some of the narratives I've seen online and what it all means about power,

00:03:54.600 celebrity, and our current online culture. So here's the basics of the charges against Sean

00:03:59.540 Diddy Combs. Combs is facing two different sets of charges, civil charges from mostly women,

00:04:05.380 but some men who are accusing him of a wide range of sexual crimes and five criminal counts,

00:04:11.400 One count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or

00:04:16.640 coercion, and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.

00:04:21.240 Those five criminal charges are what this trial is about.

00:04:24.660 Basically, the government says that Sean Combs used his business enterprise to conduct a

00:04:29.600 criminal sex trafficking and kidnapping ring, and that he used his money, celebrity, and

00:04:34.060 power to intimidate victims and cover up the crimes.

00:04:37.820 Now, I have to say, I have been really disappointed in how I've seen some folks talk about this.

00:04:43.400 They're talking about his actions as, like, sex parties, which he called, quote, freak-offs.

00:04:48.120 And I want to be super clear. 0.58

00:04:50.880 Combs is not facing charges of being freaky or having freaky sex or freaky sex parties.

00:04:56.600 And everybody knows that real freaky people create a culture of consent.

00:05:01.200 What he is being accused of is being the ringleader of a massive criminal enterprise

00:05:05.740 that included subjecting people to a pattern of physical and sexual abuse.

00:05:09.940 This is according to federal prosecutors.

00:05:12.240 Investigators allege that over a span of years,

00:05:14.760 Combs would ply victims with drugs

00:05:16.680 and resort to violence and intimidation during days-long sex sessions.

00:05:21.000 He did not do these things alone, according to prosecutors,

00:05:23.940 although right now, no one else has been criminally charged in the case.

00:05:28.020 Combs allegedly had assistants, managers, and security staff

00:05:31.040 who made sure that women and male sex workers were present

00:05:34.100 during these freak-off events, and that hotel rooms where they were staged were supplied with 1.00

00:05:39.140 things like lubricant and baby oil. In fact, if there is one thing that you've probably heard

00:05:44.240 about this case, even if you haven't been paying attention to it, is that investigators took

00:05:48.380 thousands of bottles of baby oil out of Sean Combs' home after a raid that they say were

00:05:53.680 used in these sessions. This detail was publicized right after Diddy's arrest last year, and this is

00:05:59.280 kind of a common tactic of prosecutions. Drop a salacious detail that's sure to make headlines.

00:06:04.820 The criminal trial against Combs is ongoing, but here are a few key points from the trial so far.

00:06:15.760 I'll focus on the testimony of four people in this summary. One of the victims at the heart

00:06:20.080 of this whole situation, Cassie Ventura, rapper Kid Cudi, who she briefly dated,

00:06:24.780 Cassie's former friend, Carrie Morgan, and Cassie's mother.

00:06:27.980 So Cassie Ventura is sort of the voice at the center of what's going on.

00:06:32.300 The R&B singer was in a personal and professional relationship with Sean Combs for over a decade.

00:06:37.700 Her lawsuit was really the watershed suit that preceded all the other charges.

00:06:41.880 In November of 2023, she filed a lawsuit against Combs alleging years of sexual, emotional, and physical abuse.

00:06:50.080 The lawsuit also named Combs' businesses,

00:06:52.780 Bad Boy Entertainment, Bad Boy Records, Epic Records, and Combs Enterprise.

00:06:57.140 Just a day after filing, they ended up settling the trafficking, rape, and physical assault part of the case out of court.

00:07:04.100 They actually settled within hours of Cassie filing.

00:07:06.800 But her willingness to come forward really opened the floodgates for dozens of other lawsuits against Combs.

00:07:12.640 The background of how they got involved with each other, I think, is pretty telling.

00:07:16.780 Cassie met Diddy when she was only 19 years old, and he was 37.

00:07:21.660 They started dating, and a year later, Cassie signed a deal with his record company, Bad

00:07:26.020 Boy Entertainment, and released her first self-titled debut album.

00:07:29.740 Now, if you know anything about R&B music, it has been a long-time question of why Cassie's

00:07:34.660 music career never really took off the way that it probably should have.

00:07:38.200 You know, she put out one pretty successful album, and then didn't put out another album

00:07:43.480 for six years.

00:07:45.480 Despite being in a creative and romantic partnership with one of the most powerful moguls in music,

00:07:50.440 I remember there was this feeling in the space of, like, what is happening with Cassie's career?

00:07:54.960 Well, her lawsuit really shed some light into what was going on.

00:08:04.420 Her suit alleges that this was all happening at the very beginning of Combs' coercion and abuse, 0.79

00:08:09.520 which took over her life and included things like forcing her to take drugs, 0.98

00:08:13.660 forcing her to be involved with male sex workers during these events,

00:08:17.900 where participants would have sex for hours, 0.73

00:08:20.080 while Combs would film her, and frequent beatings. 0.98

00:08:24.240 Her lawsuit stated that the beatings were often witnessed by Combs' staff,

00:08:28.060 who were employees of Bad Boy Entertainment and Combs' affiliated businesses.

00:08:31.760 Now, we've actually seen evidence of some of this.

00:08:35.020 Earlier this year, CNN published footage of Combs attacking Cassie in a hotel lobby.

00:08:40.120 Prosecutors allege that there was a male sex worker still in their hotel room at the time of the surveillance video recording.

00:08:46.520 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.

00:08:57.080 Now, initially, Combs denied all wrongdoing and implied that Cassie was just lying for money until the release of that surveillance footage.

00:09:05.200 He initially was able to get that footage buried because he allegedly paid off the hotel security.

00:09:11.140 After that footage was released, I guess there was no denying it,

00:09:13.820 and Diddy settled with Cassie basically within the day, but still legal pressure against him mounted.

00:09:19.580 I have to be honest, Cassie's testimony in court over the last few days has been difficult to listen to. 0.88

00:09:26.160 I should mention, she's currently eight months pregnant,

00:09:28.880 so she was giving all this testimony while, like, heavily pregnant.

00:09:32.480 She described numerous instances of physical and sexual violence by Combs,

00:09:36.300 including being kicked, punched, and dragged.

00:09:39.100 Combs' former assistant backs all of this up in his testimony to the court,

00:09:43.260 telling the court that one notable incident occurred on a private jet in 2015,

00:09:47.940 where Cassie screamed for help.

00:09:49.680 She screamed, isn't anybody seeing this?

00:09:51.580 During an assault.

00:09:52.620 But no one intervened.

00:09:54.140 Cassie testified that Combs forced her into these 0.84

00:09:57.080 drug-fueled sexual encounters with male sex workers, 0.91

00:09:59.920 the freak-offs, as he called them, which Combs orchestrated and filmed.

00:10:05.020 Now, I won't get into all the details here, but the stuff that she says happened during those

00:10:09.220 events is really unpleasant. And then he allegedly used these recordings to blackmail her and would

00:10:15.240 threaten to release these videos if she did not follow his demands. She also talks about how he

00:10:20.420 exerted a lot of control over her personal and professional life, including monitoring her

00:10:24.760 communications and movements. She describes these very creepy instances where he would just appear

00:10:31.160 unannounced at her locations, indicating that he was probably tracking her. So for a while,

00:10:37.120 when Cassian Combs briefly split, she had a short relationship with rapper Kid Cuddy,

00:10:41.580 who also testified before the court. Cuddy testified that in December of 2011, Combs

00:10:46.400 allegedly broke into his LA home. And during that break-in, he unwrapped Christmas gifts

00:10:51.400 and locked Cuddy's dog in a bathroom.

00:10:54.540 A few weeks after this break-in,

00:10:56.540 Cuddy's Porsche was destroyed by a Molotov cocktail explosion.

00:11:00.580 He testified that he believes Combs was behind that attack.

00:11:03.680 So after Cuddy's car was firebombed in January of 2012,

00:11:07.260 which he blamed Combs for,

00:11:08.720 he was like, I have to meet Combs in person and figure this out.

00:11:12.840 He said they met in an L.A. hotel meeting room,

00:11:15.060 and Combs was, quote,

00:11:16.900 staring at the window with his hands behind his back like a Marvel supervillain.

00:11:21.040 It was just him and I in the room.

00:11:22.740 We discussed the whole story of how Cassie and I started to date and how it ended.

00:11:26.540 His whole point was, you were with my girl.

00:11:28.760 And I said, she told me you were broken up and I took her word for it.

00:11:32.080 He was calm and he offered me water twice.

00:11:34.700 It was very off-putting.

00:11:35.800 It was weird he was so calm.

00:11:38.000 Cassie eventually came.

00:11:39.440 I was upset to find that she was back with him.

00:11:41.560 She pretty much explained that we fell in love and things just happened.

00:11:44.880 Cassie said that she broke up with Cuddy after Combs told her that, quote,

00:11:48.520 he was going to hurt the both of us.

00:11:50.420 I also want to include a little bit of testimony from a woman named Carrie Morgan, Cassie's former best friend.

00:11:56.700 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.

00:12:04.540 This incident led to Combs having to pay her $30,000 for her to keep quiet, and ultimately ended her almost 20-year friendship with Cassie.

00:12:13.300 She testified that Cassie told her that she thought that she was milking it and over-exaggerating.

00:12:18.400 Her friend had basically had enough.

00:12:21.280 She signed an NDA and her and Cassie never spoke again.

00:12:24.880 I wanted to include her testimony because she really is an outside person with no real connection to this situation anymore.

00:12:31.700 So when people try to say this is all some kind of a conspiracy against Combs, 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 Sean Combs?

00:12:46.840 I found the testimony of Cassie's mother, Regina, to be amongst the most heartbreaking,

00:12:52.680 other than the testimony from Cassie herself.

00:12:55.040 Cassie's mom said that she was once forced to pay Combs $20,000.

00:12:58.960 Essentially, she says that Combs was angry because Cassie was involved with Kid Cudi.

00:13:03.020 He threatened to release tapes of Cassie's involuntary participation with the male sex workers.

00:13:07.840 Regina said that in 2011, Combs threatened Cassie via email after learning that her and Kid Cudi were dating.

00:13:13.500 In this email, which was read in the court, 0.97

00:13:16.040 Diddy threatened to release two different sex tapes of Cassie,

00:13:18.840 including one that would be released on Christmas Day.

00:13:21.680 He also threatened Cassie and Kid Cudi,

00:13:23.860 saying that they would be physically harmed, although not by his hands.

00:13:27.800 Cassie's mom said, quote,

00:13:29.720 it was understood that he was going to need $20,000 to recoup money

00:13:33.200 he had already spent on her because he was angry that she had had a relationship with Kid Cudi.

00:13:37.860 He was angry that he had spent money on her and that she was with another person.

00:13:42.460 Cassie's mom and her husband said they had to take out a home equity loan

00:13:45.420 to fulfill the payment that Combs allegedly demanded

00:13:47.720 because it was really the only way they could get the money.

00:13:50.880 Cassie's mom also photographed all of Cassie's injuries from Diddy,

00:13:54.020 which were pretty significant.

00:13:55.680 So that's where things are at with this testimony as of recording this on May 23rd.

00:14:00.020 All of those claims were made in court under oath.

00:14:02.220 Those are just the facts of the situation.

00:14:04.560 But like most things these days, this is not only playing out in court.

00:14:08.640 It's also playing out online.

00:14:11.400 So I want to pivot to talk about how this conversation has been going down on the internet.

00:14:15.320 So I have seen so many well-worn tropes about what is happening play out online.

00:14:21.520 The first is the obvious, the gold digger trope.

00:14:24.960 This trope has already made a few appearances at the trial.

00:14:28.580 Combs' lawyer said in his opening statement,

00:14:30.800 So when you hear from the witnesses who testify here who will tell you they were victimized,

00:14:35.500 ask yourself, what is their motive?

00:14:37.460 For many of them, the answer is simple.

00:14:39.420 Money.

00:14:39.820 his lawyer referred to Cassie's civil suit as quote a money grab and then the defense lawyer

00:14:46.640 posed this question to the jury how many millions of reasons does this witness swearing to tell the

00:14:52.120 truth and nothing but the truth have to lie but here's my thing Cassie already settled her civil

00:14:58.360 suit with Diddy he settled within hours so how could Cassie testifying as the state's witness

00:15:04.860 in this criminal trial be about money?

00:15:08.780 Another well-worn trope that I've seen a lot online is,

00:15:12.400 why didn't she leave? 0.97

00:15:13.760 She's an adult. 1.00

00:15:14.520 She could have just left.

00:15:15.720 This one is so baffling to me

00:15:17.480 because we have actual video surveillance footage

00:15:20.660 of exactly what happened when she tried to leave.

00:15:23.740 When she left one of these sex events at a hotel,

00:15:26.700 Combs followed her, physically attacked her,

00:15:29.280 and physically dragged her back to his hotel room.

00:15:31.680 So that's why she didn't leave.

00:15:33.460 He also tried to blow up Kid Cudi's car when she left Combs for him. 0.51

00:15:37.640 When she tried to leave, her mom had to put up her home as collateral to give $20,000 to a multimillionaire to keep him from releasing videos of her and humiliating sex acts. 0.74

00:15:47.360 So all of that is why she couldn't leave.

00:15:48.940 I mean, anybody who knows anything about how abuse works would understand this, but especially under these kinds of circumstances.

00:15:56.180 And this is such a common trope used against abused women that it feels like a cliche.

00:16:00.940 Abusers use emotional manipulation to isolate and control their partners.

00:16:05.440 Perversely, abuse can sometimes cause victims to feel even more connected to their abusers through the process of trauma bonding,

00:16:12.140 which can happen when cycles of abuse are interspersed with moments of affection.

00:16:15.620 Cassie basically says as much during the trial.

00:16:18.080 She testified that at the time when all of this stuff was going down,

00:16:21.040 she still had a lot of complicated love for Combs because they had been in a relationship for over a decade.

00:16:25.220 And obviously, that emotional rollercoaster of highs and lows can create really confusing emotional ties.

00:16:32.780 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 suggests was a big factor here.

00:16:49.460 Let's take a quick break.

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00:17:38.880 that's 844-844-iheart when i was 14 years old i was kidnapped and held captive for nine months

00:17:46.960 I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them.

00:17:53.940 I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files.

00:17:57.640 I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything.

00:18:05.820 Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable.

00:18:09.940 I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me.

00:18:14.720 I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming.

00:18:22.340 They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced.

00:18:26.240 But these aren't stories about what's taken from them.

00:18:29.700 They're stories about what it takes to make it out alive.

00:18:33.320 Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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00:19:00.160 I'm Eli Rallo, and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having.

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00:19:47.340 And we're back. So we're talking about how all these well-worn tropes about survivors have been

00:19:53.540 showing up in the trial against Sean P. Diddy Combs and how they continue to discredit people

00:19:57.780 from speaking up. Another trope I've seen online is the idea that Cassie wanted this. She must have

00:20:03.360 wanted this kind of behavior from Combs. Combs' legal team did a great job to portray her as a 1.00

00:20:08.340 woman who, as they put it, made voluntary adult choices. They actually had Cassie read text

00:20:14.000 messengers that she had written to Combs in court where she said things that maybe could be

00:20:18.340 construed like she was into what was going on. But Cassie says at that point she was really just

00:20:22.660 trying to placate him and that it was really just words that she was typing. She describes how she

00:20:28.200 would have these big events or premieres coming up and that she was just doing these things and

00:20:32.660 pretending to go along with them just to try to keep him under control so that he wouldn't ruin

00:20:37.440 and blow up more aspects of her life.

00:20:40.020 And truly, can there really be any consent

00:20:43.240 in a situation where both parties agree

00:20:45.320 there is control, abuse, and coercion?

00:20:48.340 Okay, so another trope I've seen a lot online 0.96

00:20:50.220 is that the people who are speaking out are rats. 0.98

00:20:52.980 They're going against somebody just because they're rats. 0.99

00:20:55.940 The rapper Young Thug essentially called Kid Cudi 0.96

00:20:58.400 a snitch for testifying at all.

00:21:00.360 But let's be real.

00:21:02.440 Combs broke into his house and blew up his car,

00:21:05.740 And Kid Cudi stayed silent about it for 10 years until he was subpoenaed by the feds to testify.

00:21:11.960 So this is not someone who is just like out looking to sing like a canary against somebody who's wronged them.

00:21:17.300 And by the way, if somebody blew up my car, you best believe I would tell anybody who would listen about it right away.

00:21:24.240 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. 0.67

00:21:31.800 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 to do anything wrong and should always be shielded from accountability, even if we have video evidence of him doing something wrong. 0.52

00:21:51.020 And I think we see some version of this that comes out any time a famous or visible Black 0.56

00:21:55.440 man is accused of a crime. 0.74

00:21:56.920 Like, we're all supposed to just stay silent and protect an abuser because he is a Black

00:22:00.860 man who is doing good in the community or, you know, trying to help his people or whatever

00:22:06.380 you want to say. 0.63

00:22:07.120 And it just makes me wonder, like, why is it that this Black man is more worthy of protection, 0.99

00:22:12.640 but the Black woman he abused isn't? 0.97

00:22:15.560 And that the whole dynamic is that she's meant to stay silent so that he can continue to 0.98

00:22:19.460 masquerade as a Black man worth protecting. You know, this is all about power, coercion, 0.99

00:22:26.560 and control. And honestly, to me, it's comparable to what we saw with Jeffrey Epstein. When I was

00:22:32.080 covering Epstein for an earlier episode of There Are No Girls on the Internet, what really struck

00:22:36.380 me was the way that Epstein intentionally ingratiated himself into the upper echelons

00:22:41.200 of the tech world through things like his donations to MIT's renowned Media Lab and

00:22:46.020 other respected institutions. He did this with intention to shield himself from accountability

00:22:51.240 for his vast crimes. And this is a tried and true abuser tactic. Diddy was known for his iconic

00:22:58.860 white party, which was a who's who of A-list celebrities and moguls. He donated to all the

00:23:04.120 right causes. You know, he donated a million dollars to his alma mater and my old workplace,

00:23:09.520 Howard University right here in D.C., basically trying to keep anybody from calling him out

00:23:13.920 because look at all these good things I have done.

00:23:16.120 Look at all these good causes I stand for.

00:23:18.340 Even Diddy's attorney said in a statement,

00:23:20.760 Sean Diddy Combs is a music icon,

00:23:23.140 self-made entrepreneur, loving family man,

00:23:25.320 and proven philanthropist

00:23:26.680 who has spent the last 30 years building an empire,

00:23:29.460 adoring his children,

00:23:30.280 and working to uplift the Black community.

00:23:32.980 This is kind of a side note,

00:23:34.460 but y'all might remember that Diddy's public persona

00:23:36.580 kind of shifted in 2017

00:23:38.200 when he started asking people to call him

00:23:40.720 love instead of Diddy.

00:23:42.220 He had a baby daughter in 2022.

00:23:45.180 So, you know, how could he be a sex criminal?

00:23:47.560 He has a daughter!

00:23:49.240 He named his daughter Love,

00:23:51.820 which is also the title of his first solo studio album in 17 years,

00:23:55.240 which came out in 2023.

00:23:57.280 There's also this glowing New York Times puff piece

00:24:00.500 that I think really helped him paint this new persona.

00:24:04.420 I have to read a few gems of how the New York Times

00:24:07.100 really helped launder this new reputation

00:24:09.520 that he was trying to foster for himself.

00:24:12.220 He talks about therapy.

00:24:13.720 He said, it probably most likely really saved my brain

00:24:17.300 because when you have a genius brain, 0.69

00:24:19.400 it is also a crazy brain.

00:24:21.500 He talks about how he continued to try to understand life 0.98

00:24:24.380 beyond the conventional earthly plane saying,

00:24:27.160 I'm a big old hippie, said Combs,

00:24:29.040 who has attended multiple Burning Man festivals.

00:24:31.720 I had a little bit of ego left in me.

00:24:33.820 And when I did Toad, I officially had an ego death.

00:24:37.920 Toad is the drug DMT.

00:24:39.620 And it's honestly giving that joke 0.79

00:24:41.620 men need to do psychedelics to have the same psychological revelation that most girls have

00:24:47.360 had since they were 14. So basically it's, I have done all these great things. I am now a loving and

00:24:54.560 centered family man. I could not also be a criminal. It's what Harvey Weinstein did. It's

00:24:59.780 what Bill Cosby did. It's what R. Kelly did. And now it is what Diddy is doing. So this is what I

00:25:06.100 hate, how there are real people who were hurt in this case. But of course, in our current digital

00:25:11.000 media climate, it just becomes another way to callously score political points in the ever-running

00:25:15.960 culture war. So the reality is that Diddy, in building his public persona to protect him from

00:25:20.860 accountability, is cozy with lots of famous people. Democrats, Republicans, other celebrities.

00:25:27.020 When you look through the different pictures of who has been photographed with Diddy over the

00:25:30.060 years, it's basically everyone. None of this should be surprising because it's, of course,

00:25:34.220 intentional. You might recall that he had a voting initiative called Vote or Die. He endorsed both

00:25:39.140 Obama and Biden, which, of course, Fox News made a huge production about while glossing over his

00:25:44.680 documented connections to Trump. This actually became a thing during the 2024 election, when

00:25:49.780 right before the election, the account Trump Fact News posted a picture of Harris and Diddy, saying

00:25:54.880 never forget how Harris got her start. She's no stranger to Diddy parties in Los Angeles either.

00:26:00.440 So this is obviously a reference to the common lie hurled at Harris that she, quote, 0.93

00:26:04.680 slept her way to the top. But the picture is not even of Harris and Diddy. It's of Harris and talk

00:26:11.060 show host Montel Williams, who Kamala Harris actually did date 20 years ago. Montel Williams

00:26:17.160 replied, here they go again with all black people look alike. In September of 2024, a pro-Trump meme 0.97

00:26:23.720 account on X called The Right to Bear Memes posted a doctored version of a photo taken by Montel

00:26:29.580 Williams in 2001 at a charity event. The picture is basically like they just put Sean Combs' head

00:26:35.940 on Williams' body. It's like obviously a very bad Photoshop if you look at it for more than five

00:26:40.240 seconds. But it prompted the comment, the Diddy client list goes all the way to the top, posted

00:26:45.560 by Red Pill USA, a major pro-Trump conspiracy account, and it was viewed over a million times.

00:26:51.580 On Truth Social, Trump himself reposted and then deleted an image of Harris with Diddy's face

00:26:56.920 photoshopped over Montel Williams' with the caption,

00:27:00.320 Kamala doing the ditty?

00:27:02.300 Madam Vice President, have you ever been involved

00:27:04.900 or engaged in one of Puff Daddy's freak-offs?

00:27:08.040 He did delete that, thankfully.

00:27:11.320 But this was just the beginning of all the disinformation

00:27:13.800 being spread about this case.

00:27:18.040 More after a quick break.

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00:27:41.300 about podcasting think again more americans listen to podcasts than ad supported streaming

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00:27:51.380 two combined so whatever your customers listen to they'll hear your message plus only iheart

00:27:56.200 can extend your message to audiences across broadcast radio think podcasting can help your

00:28:00.660 business think iheart streaming radio and podcasting call 844-844-iheart to get started

00:28:07.360 that's 844-844-iheart if your bookshelf and your for you page are equally important to your

00:28:13.300 personality welcome home this is prose society the weekly podcast that's part book club part

00:28:20.920 group chat for thought daughters pop culture obsessives and anyone who thinks pride and

00:28:25.080 prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse i'm eli rallo and every week we're

00:28:30.360 connecting the dots between books the internet and the conversations everyone can't stop having

00:28:35.260 i'm gonna have to look up this story i'm obsessed so obsessed from best-selling authors and your

00:28:40.740 favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments nothing is off the table it's

00:28:45.680 like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters and that is a trojan horse

00:28:52.680 whether you're looking for literary deep dives smart pop culture conversations or a community

00:28:57.840 of readers who love to think a little too much you're in the right place listen to pro society

00:29:03.340 on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts see you between the pages

00:29:10.740 When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months.

00:29:16.120 I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them.

00:29:22.500 I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files.

00:29:26.000 I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything.

00:29:34.580 Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable.

00:29:38.820 I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me.

00:29:43.280 I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming.

00:29:50.900 They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced.

00:29:54.800 But these aren't stories about what's taken from them.

00:29:58.260 They're stories about what it takes to make it out alive.

00:30:01.380 Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:30:15.540 Let's get right back into it.

00:30:18.420 So this trial is not being shown on television.

00:30:20.980 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.

00:30:26.780 So people online can and are saying just about anything to capitalize on the clicky engagement of this trial.

00:30:34.420 Here's a few examples of what I mean.

00:30:36.360 One rumor that I saw everywhere online while the trial was going on

00:30:39.820 was the claim that prosecutors presented as evidence a secret recording of Prince exposing Holmes' crimes.

00:30:46.920 The rumor said that in Prince's final days alive, he filmed a video that said,

00:30:51.180 If something happens to me, this recording needs to go to the press or the police, either one.

00:30:56.780 This is simply false. Not true. Never happened.

00:31:01.100 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

00:31:07.760 because sometimes it ends up that you're just helping a random video that nobody was probably ever really going to see anyway

00:31:13.140 outside of these niche pockets of the Internet get more traction and oxygen.

00:31:17.360 And a lot of times that's true.

00:31:19.040 But I wanted to talk about this one involving Prince because this particular conspiracy theory was not just staying in one niche corner of the Internet.

00:31:26.780 I've seen this particular false claim about prints 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.

00:31:37.860 And I think it reveals a lot about why this kind of AI-generated conspiracy theory content works.

00:31:43.500 They blow up something that has a grain 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.

00:31:55.300 So in 1993, Prince famously changed his name from Prince to the artist formerly known as Prince

00:32:01.220 in a public dispute over how much control his record label, Warner Brothers, had over his music.

00:32:07.100 So the grain of truth there is that Prince was somebody who went up against powerful figures in the entertainment industry.

00:32:13.200 So this particular false claim really does align with my existing worldview about Prince, which is why it works so well.

00:32:20.660 And Prince died really suddenly.

00:32:22.740 So, of course, there will always be conspiracy surrounding his death.

00:32:26.200 Like, maybe he was killed by those very same powerful forces that he was trying to call out and dismantle.

00:32:32.080 So then, when you hear about the ways that Diddy, who actually is a powerful force in entertainment, used his power to abuse and control others,

00:32:40.360 it makes sense why this is the AI conspiracy that really hits and takes off and gets traction.

00:32:46.020 Because at its core, it has a grain of truth to it,

00:32:48.460 and it aligns with the kind of conspiracy that our brains love.

00:32:51.340 You know, a story about a beloved figure being taken out by a powerful evil force he was trying to take down.

00:32:57.500 In fact, I have to admit that when I was watching some of these Prince Diddy conspiracy videos for this episode,

00:33:02.920 I found myself going from watching it critically to, at a certain point,

00:33:07.500 catching myself almost kind of getting lost in the story because the story is that good.

00:33:12.000 Like, I could see myself sharing this video,

00:33:14.400 And if I wasn't already tuned in to accurate coverage of the trial, I might even believe this actually happened in the courtroom, even though it didn't.

00:33:22.880 Because it aligned so well with my pre-existing worldview.

00:33:26.340 And honestly, that's what AI and LLMs are so good at, reflecting our own world's back at us.

00:33:32.480 And it seems like that's why they were really able to hit a home run with this Prince Diddy AI conspiracy theories.

00:33:38.540 So where did this Diddy Prince video come from?

00:33:42.580 Well, it came from a YouTube channel called What Is My Star Worth?

00:33:46.920 Which posted the video titled Prince's Secret Recording Just Shattered Diddy's Trial.

00:33:52.420 Then the video spread to Blue Sky, Facebook, Threads, TikTok, X, and other places on YouTube.

00:33:58.260 So I took a look at that channel and it is essentially very obviously AI-generated fanfiction that gets so many views.

00:34:07.680 They have created video after video after video, falsely linking the biggest celebrities to the Combs trial.

00:34:15.420 Most of the videos follow the same formula.

00:34:17.960 They start with an AI-generated voice narrator saying,

00:34:21.340 Before we begin, viewer discretion is strongly advised.

00:34:24.480 The following is for educational and entertainment purposes only.

00:34:27.280 But then, in the very next sentence, the narrator says,

00:34:30.260 This is the verbatim federal courtroom testimony of the Sean Diddy Combs trial, as reported by Inner City Press.

00:34:37.860 When, no, it's not.

00:34:40.240 One video, called Oprah Fucks Diddy, claims that Oprah was present at one of Diddy's hotel sex sessions. 0.85

00:34:47.560 And that the actress Monique has named Oprah, Tyler Perry, and others as being involved.

00:34:53.440 That video has only been up for four days, and it already has 1.5 million views.

00:34:58.760 And again, this is pure fiction.

00:35:01.780 None of these people testified.

00:35:03.180 None of these people are even involved in any of this.

00:35:05.620 As somebody who studies conspiracy theories and how they move online,

00:35:09.820 when I look at this page, I can sort of immediately clock what's going on.

00:35:13.780 When you go back a little further in the content,

00:35:16.540 before switching over to all ditty content,

00:35:18.800 the channel was sort of cycling through this format of having a public figure

00:35:23.660 in some sort of sad situation.

00:35:26.240 It's generally an AI-generated image of a sad-looking celebrity.

00:35:30.680 And then it'll say, the shocking truth about Christopher Walken

00:35:33.880 seemed to imply that, like, something bad is happening in his life.

00:35:38.080 Now, their early videos seem to have done all right in terms of views,

00:35:41.620 but the Diddy videos really hit.

00:35:43.860 So, of course, they're going to keep producing them.

00:35:46.360 And honestly, it seems like any celebrity you want, dead or alive,

00:35:50.260 can be mixed up in the Diddy stuff.

00:35:52.080 Elvis, Wendy Williams, Whitney Houston, Will Smith, according to this channel, have all appeared in

00:35:59.480 the courtroom to give explosive testimony. But like I said, it's just fan fiction. Except, in my

00:36:05.320 opinion, they're obviously going out of their way to make it look real. And it's interesting how they

00:36:09.760 pick celebrities that have some level of conspiracy theory kind of around them already. Folks like

00:36:14.760 Will Smith or Oprah. They pair that with an AI-generated image of that celebrity looking

00:36:20.220 distraught on the stand next to an AI-generated Diddy, and people actually believe it. I fully

00:36:26.860 expected the comments on these videos to be people calling it out as obvious fakes, but no, people

00:36:31.760 believe it. In one of these AI-generated videos, they claim that Samuel L. Jackson took the stand

00:36:37.880 and made a bombshell accusation, claiming that Diddy groomed Lori Harvey, and that her stepfather,

00:36:43.240 Steve Harvey, may have played a role in serving his stepdaughter up to be abused by Diddy.

00:36:48.360 It says,

00:36:49.220 The shocking testimony has sent shockwaves across the entertainment industry and social media,

00:36:53.540 as the Harvey family's reputation is suddenly thrown into question.

00:36:56.840 Now, there is a disclaimer at the very bottom that says,

00:36:58.900 This content is fictional and intended for entertainment purposes only.

00:37:02.460 No verified court documents or official statements confirm these claims.

00:37:06.280 But that doesn't stop people in the comments from talking about it like it's real.

00:37:10.980 Here's a few comments.

00:37:12.620 I always had this instinctive feeling that something was wrong with Steve Harvey, Tyler, Perry, Oprah,

00:37:17.720 Kevin Hart, Michael Jackson, T.D. Jakes, and Martin Lawrence and others.

00:37:21.420 I never understood why folks on TV and movies may be uncomfortable.

00:37:24.540 Learning this now, I know God gave me this wonderful gift.

00:37:27.920 Here's another comment.

00:37:29.180 Samuel is a noble brother that appreciates fair game and order.

00:37:32.360 To see a colleague sacrifice his own daughter for gain with a demonic, cold, calculating monster is an insult to our entire culture.

00:37:39.440 No man should be that thirsty to compromise his integrity for money.

00:37:42.600 Steve pimped that girl.

00:37:44.200 Samuel is the one millions of us respect.

00:37:46.520 And lastly, quote, how I wish I could have seen Mr. Jackson's testimony.

00:37:50.660 This could be a movie.

00:37:52.080 And I hate to break it to you, but you can't see Mr. Jackson's testimony because it doesn't exist.

00:37:57.040 It never happened.

00:37:58.740 So even when the coverage of the trial isn't straight up making up facts, it still feels gross.

00:38:04.160 People online are covering this trial at the Recapping a Netflix series.

00:38:07.760 Friend of the podcast, Francesca Ramsey, made a great point that creators online are rushing to do these breakdowns and coverage for engagement.

00:38:15.920 of all these salacious details that make it seem like they're covering a fictional series,

00:38:20.320 not the traumas of somebody else's life.

00:38:23.300 It's a bit of a sad commentary on the state of our digital media ecosystem,

00:38:26.760 which really does encourage everybody to have an opinion, everybody to have a take,

00:38:30.580 but in doing so, treats real people's lives like stories and discourages empathy.

00:38:36.860 And this kind of fan fiction capturing the nation's interest with this trial is not new.

00:38:41.980 It started the day that Diddy was arrested.

00:38:44.820 Combs' late ex-wife, the model Kim Porter, died very suddenly in 2018.

00:38:49.860 Her listed cause of death was pneumonia, but rumors have swirled about her death since she died.

00:38:54.680 After Diddy was arrested, an L.A.-based producer self-published a, quote, memoir of Kim Porter's on Amazon.

00:39:02.980 The memoir was full of pulpy, salacious claims about Sean Combs' past and crimes.

00:39:08.900 There were plenty of people breaking it down on TikTok, but this memoir is probably completely bogus.

00:39:15.540 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 2018, which also contained, he claims, quote, tapes of Diddy with celebrities in sexual situations.

00:39:31.780 He said that he received portions of the drive from a, quote, celebrity source who was, quote, very close inside the Kim and Diddy hip hop circle.

00:39:39.900 In the Variety interview, Todd said, I'm not doing this for the money.

00:39:43.700 I'm the voice for the voiceless.

00:39:45.320 Although he did acknowledge making a fair bit of money from the fake book.

00:39:49.200 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 real?

00:39:58.360 I have to say, I don't know.

00:39:59.760 but it's real enough to me. Sometimes you just got to put it out there. Maybe not 100% of the

00:40:05.200 book is true, but maybe 80% is. That is to get those people to come forward and either corroborate

00:40:10.240 or deny the claims. And that helps me as an investigator to know the truth. So even though

00:40:15.160 the person who published this memoir pretty much says it's probably not true, this did not stop

00:40:20.680 the book from shooting to the number one spot on Amazon. Eventually, in October 2024, after shooting

00:40:26.660 to the number one spot, Amazon pulled it. And that really says a lot to me, that we have a digital

00:40:32.220 culture that really incentivizes just making stuff up about something as serious as sex trafficking

00:40:37.620 and sexual abuse to make a quick buck, whether through sales of bogus memoirs or through online

00:40:43.100 engagement through AI-generated fan fiction. That has no grounding in reality. So what's next for

00:40:49.080 Diddy? Well, the trial continues, and according to Rolling Stone, Combs' team is already working

00:40:54.740 on a pardon from Trump if he's convicted. Several longtime friends and allies of Combs have already

00:40:59.760 begun making connections to the Trump team with hopes of laying the groundwork for a possible

00:41:04.240 presidential pardon if Combs is found guilty on the charges. Per Rolling Stone, Combs' team is

00:41:10.240 hoping to appeal to Trump by drawing a comparison between their shared stories. Two successful

00:41:14.420 businessmen allegedly targeted by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York

00:41:18.560 with baseless, wink wink, accusations of sexual assault. Combs and Trump have reportedly maintained

00:41:24.400 a friendly personal relationship for over a decade.

00:41:27.200 Trump described Combs as, quote,

00:41:28.820 a good friend of mine during a 2012 taping of Celebrity Apprentice

00:41:32.060 and was a regular attendee at his birthday parties.

00:41:34.640 And you know what?

00:41:35.900 I think it might work.

00:41:37.160 I think if Diddy is convicted,

00:41:38.980 I could see a world where Trump pardons him.

00:41:41.320 And I just want to end by saying,

00:41:43.200 survivors are watching.

00:41:44.920 That dig about Cassie being a gold digger

00:41:47.280 or somehow inviting her own abuse? 0.98

00:41:49.360 Cassie probably won't see it online.

00:41:51.340 But you know who will?

00:41:52.740 Survivors.

00:41:53.660 Survivors are watching, and we're not going to stand for it.

00:42:00.440 Got a story about an interesting thing in tech, or just want to say hi?

00:42:03.940 You can reach us at hello at tangody.com.

00:42:06.240 You can also find transcripts for today's episode at tangody.com.

00:42:09.660 There Are No Girls on the Internet was created by me, Bridget Todd.

00:42:12.400 It's a production of iHeartRadio and Unbossed Creative.

00:42:15.120 Jonathan Strickland is our executive producer.

00:42:17.180 Tari Harrison is our producer and sound engineer.

00:42:19.780 Michael Amato is our contributing producer.

00:42:21.800 I'm your host, Bridget Todd.

00:42:23.220 If you want to help us grow, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts.

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00:42:50.700 Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse.

00:42:59.360 Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture with your favorite writers, book talk creators, and plenty of overthought opinions.

00:43:07.640 Yeah, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed.

00:43:09.380 Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:43:14.780 I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive

00:43:22.080 what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are The Survivor Files.

00:43:27.680 Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled,

00:43:33.500 and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive.

00:43:38.680 Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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00:43:51.600 You know, I'm always searching for inspiration and useful tools to maximize joy.

00:43:56.940 Like when my friend Henry Winkler offered advice to aspiring actors and really anybody hoping to stand out.

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00:44:06.600 You're hired to fill the space with you.

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There Are No Girls on the Internet - May 27, 2025

Diddy Disinfo： How Creators are Using AI to Hijack the Trial for Clicks

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