The anonymity the internet provides can be both a good and a bad thing (though let’s face it, mostly bad). Sure, you can keep yourself from getting harassed , but it also allows others to harass you without a second thought .
Unless you get caught, that is. And as one TikToker proved, if you don’t cover your tracks, the people who you harass online will have a way of finding out who you are.
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In response to a previous TikTok, a user showed off her sleuthing skills.
Rachel Everest (@araccoon82) posted a TikTok mid-August where she talked about an ex who had cheated on her . An anonymous user posted a now-deleted comment saying, “Probably because he wasn’t feeling appreciated because he was giving you everything and you weren’t matching his energy.”
This comment prompted Everest to post a follow-up.
Sure, getting harassed online isn’t uncommon. But what made this comment so interesting was the fact that, as Everest displays, the commenter was someone in her personal contacts list.
So what does she do? She goes through all her contacts.
Everest then shows us the sheets she’d printed out, containing each of her 92 contacts (with their personal information covered for their own privacy, of course).
At this point, she goes through the process of elimination.
She begins with eliminating mutuals (since the person who posted the comment was likely using their main/only TikTok account), and then eliminated anyone listed as “in your contacts” from the mix, too.
This left her with less than 50 contacts.
But Everest wasn’t done whittling down the possible suspect list. Next came eliminating anyone she knew wouldn’t post something like that (which she lists as “smart women”). She then eliminates “Openly feminist men” and “old people.”
This left her with 17 potential options.
But Everest wasn’t quite done her sleuthing. She goes through each of the 17 suspects’ profiles in order to look for clues. According to the text overlay on the screen, she “found lots.”
She eliminates more suspects, and is left with 7 people.
From there, Everest decides to delete them from her contacts one by one “in order from most to least suspicious,” to see if the contacts badge disappears from the comment.
In the end, the first contact she deleted ended up being the one who commented on her previous video.
She then writes a message to the harasser, saying, “Let’s not act like your misogyny wasn’t part of the reason you got fired.”
Needless to say, the internet was impressed.
Since posting the TikTok just a week ago, it’s gained over 5 million views. Comments poured in, with many expressing how impressed they were with her sleuthing skills.
“Not even the FBI could work like this,” a commenter said.
Everest also clarified that she didn’t want people going after the other user.
In a comment on her TikTok, she wrote, “1. This was in response to my previous video 2. PLS do not try and go to his profile/reach out in any way. It’s not MY vibe just enjoy the sleuth work.”
What do you think of Everest’s sleuthing? Let us know in the comments!
