Influencer Lily Chapman was stalked online. It was just the beginning.

Recently, influencer Lily Chapman noticed an influx of hate messages on her TikTok. At first the 25-year-old content creator didn't think much of it. After amassing 838k followers by sharing her life on the platform, criticism wasn't new to her. 

At first, she considered the insults pretty minor. The troll called her a 'pick me' and a 'wh**e.' It didn't take long though for the behaviour to escalate. The person began responding to everything Lily posted online and then tried to contact her on every form of social media. The messages ranged from wishing Lily dead to telling her to drink bleach. Next, they doxxed Lily's home address to her hundreds of thousands of followers. 

Things got even worse when Lily got into a relationship. The troll created countless faceless accounts to harass her, pushing baseless narratives in an attempt to get Lily cancelled. They accused her of being racist, transphobic, fatphobic, all with no evidence behind them. It had turned into a full-blown obsession. Videos began circulating calling for Lily to be cancelled. 

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A post shared by Lily🍒 (@lilybchapman)

In August 2023, Lily announced to her audience that she was filing a police report against a person who had been harassing her for over a year. She said she planned to escalate the claim to an order of protection. Lily used the video to address her alleged stalker directly, telling her that she had sent a message to her parents with screenshots of everything she had sent her. She then ended the video by telling her to, "get absolutely f*cked." 

While the police were initially helpful, it became too difficult to prove the person they suspected was the one writing the comments. In the meantime, Lily's video went viral, attracting over six million views on TikTok. It also marked the escalation of a snark subreddit dedicated to the TikToker.

Snark or snarking communities are massive on social networking forum, Reddit. Members create what are known as 'subreddits' dedicated to a niche topic. In this instance, there were nine snark subreddits dedicated specifically to bullying Lily, or as the community put it, 'holding her to account.'

While Lily was aware a subreddit existed dedicated to her, she had avoided it. It wasn’t until her alleged stalker started flooding her comment section with what was being said, that she understood the extent of the bullying. Ironically, Lily's subreddit used her accusations about having a stalker as proof that she was a pathological liar. 

At the start of this month, Lily decided she'd had enough. At eight-months pregnant, a comment labelling her unborn daughter a 'bitch' was the final straw. Over the course of a week, Lily shared her experience with online bullying in a bid to expose the impact of snark communities. 

"This has been horrific. This has been a literally traumatising experience for me and having this happen during a time in my life which should have been peaceful and should have been relaxing, and is instead filled with literal defamation, slander and people trying to make me lose all of my work. 

"Literally every paid collab that I’ve had in the last five months, they’ve gone after with no proof and no actual reasoning," Lily told her TikTok followers.

Lily shared a series of 21 detailed videos, addressing and shutting down the accusations circulating about her on her subreddits. She said the purpose of her campaign was to ensure people interested in becoming content creators knew the risks before getting involved. She also wanted to pull back the curtain on what really goes on behind the scenes of the influencer world. 

"Snarking communities are unhealthy, they're obsessive, they allow lies to be posted, they don't moderate the lies, they indoctrinate new people to believe these lies and go way too far. And most people don't even know that this is happening," Lily said.

Watch: Woman's powerful response to a hater's comment. Post continues after video.

The LA-based influencer is adamant her alleged stalker has been a major driving force behind the subreddit that has become a breeding ground to spread lies about her to thousands of people. 

Over the last year, Lily has been forced to get a lawyer, hire a private investigator and file police reports about multiple cease and desist letters thanks to members of her snark subreddit. 

"Snark is really scary. It's international and it's a feminist issue, because it almost exclusively affects women," Lily said.

Alongside the video series, the LA-based TikToker has released her own 'Cancel Me' merchandise collection. Lily said 10% of proceeds will go towards a charity called Cyber Smile Foundation, a non-for-profit organisation committed to digital wellbeing and tackling all forms of bullying and abuse online, while the rest she will put towards her legal fees. 

Lily has also created a 'Snark' Guide for influencers who are facing online harassment, bullying and defamation. 

Feature Image: Lily🍒 (@lilybchapman) Instagram.