Kate Gosselin found herself in the crosshairs of a hacking scandal late last week after she corresponded via Twitter with some self-described hackers and thanked them for what appeared to be efforts to expose the identities of some Twitter users she reportedly called out as bullies.
Kate has previously spoken out about bullying on a website called Bullyville which claims to give a voice to victims of bullying and raises awareness of its damaging effects.
In an article she wrote titled “My Experiences with Real Life and Internet Bullying,” Kate claims to have been bullied as a child and continues to be bullied now as an adult. Kate wrote of the shock she experienced after discovering “ugly, hurtful and untrue comments” about her and her family on the Internet after her life became public fodder through the “Jon and Kate Plus 8” reality television show. The show featured the challenges of raising eight young children, twins and sextuplets, which aired between 2007 and 2011.
While critics say they understand the Bullyville website may be well intentioned, they argue since Kate Gosselin has put herself out there as a public figure, she is offered less protection from defamation than private citizens. Bullyville tweeted yesterday that they will post the identities of those they believe are “trolling” Kate Gosselin. Trolling is another word for online harassment.
On Monday, Bullblast tweeted, “Trolls FLIP OUT when they get trolled. Fun Fact: it’s 100% legal to post someone’s real & verified first/last name on OUR WEBSITE. Tick tock.” The tweet was re-tweeted by Kate Gosselin.
Kate became an extremely polarizing figure after her reality TV show had many critics accusing the mother of eight of exploiting her children for fame and money and treating her husband, whom she divorced in 2009, unfairly. Fans tend to take the opposite opinion, blaming Kate’s former husband, Jon Gosselin, of abandoning his family and describing Kate as a good mother.
On Monday, one of the hackers, Mad British Guy, who declared himself Kate Gosselin’s “cyber bodyguard” and vowing to “out” anybody who criticized Kate Gosselin on Twitter. Mad British Guy appeared to switch alliances when he allegedly provided some of Kate’s critics with direct messages, which, if real, offer some incriminating evidence against Kate Gosselin who appears to be egging on the hackers. One of the direct messages Mad British Guy (MBG) reportedly provided to one of Kate’s critics, which was allegedly written by Kate Gosselin, asked the hackers to go after her “haters.”
A string of public tweets between Kate Gosselin and the hackers suggest a unique partnership, of which she made little effort to hide, even after the self described hackers threatened to destroy her detractors by emptying their bank accounts, hacking their cell phones and publishing their names and social security numbers.
Imperfect Parent spoke to a source who claims to have been targeted by the hackers initially and who also asked not to be identified.
The source told us, “In two years she was only following a few people, and only 50 twitter accounts all together. She doesn’t even follow some of her most solicitous fans, but she immediately followed the hackers. She may have been following them before and no one noticed. I do have copies of screenshots of DMs (direct messages) between Kate and the ‘hackers’ telling them who to ‘take down’. She encouraged them and retweeted them, thanked them & told them to keep it up.”
The source also claimed that Kate has a very dedicated following of fans who scrub the Internet of Kate Gosselin critics. Previous media reports suggest that Kate Gosselin is overly involved in her critics’ online behavior and takes public criticisms very personally.
There has been a renewed interest in Kate and her career choices after a recent announcement that she was starring in an upcoming episode of “Wife Swap” where she and former playmate Kendra Wilkinson swap children and homes for two weeks. Kate and her eight children appear on “Wife Swap” on February 26.
In a turnabout of events however, the hackers had their own identities revealed by the very people they were targeting. Critics exposed one of the hackers as a 13-year-old boy.
Our anonymous source also explained why MGB, one of the hackers allegedly enlisted by Kate, contacted them, saying, “He asked for my help because he was scared. I gave him my email address and he sent me copies of two direct messages between him & Kate. It’s possible someone faked the account, but I don’t think so, because when you close an account you still own the name for 30 days and you can re-instate it. He sounds like a very immature boy. He actually asked why his name is being brought up in regard to law enforcement. He didn’t know what he did wrong.”