For the Weekend Warriors, Weirdos & Whackjobs - Issue #41

Go job hunting, just not in Utah.

So, what’s good? We all having fun here?

This week, our intrepid investigator,

MJ Banias

, delivered another stellar OSINT how-to, teaching us how to trawl for trolls in job boards: A Free OSINT Lesson: Go Job Hunting to Find Your Target. Another must-read from one of the nimblest!

What Kennedy Listened To

Talk about a phrase that would kill a Victorian child—“Family vlogging.” Family-focused content creation is not new, and the conversation about exposing your children to the internet is also not new. But it is increasingly pervasive. If you’re new to the concept, family vlogging is the practice of creating content about your daily life, usually as a mother, but sometimes as a family unit. Parents profit from this, creating platforms with millions of followers, earning millions of dollars, because the content broadly appeals to all ages. 

You can see the apparent ethical issues here. In just 2023, Illinois became the first state to pass a law requiring parents to set aside a portion of the earnings generated by content featuring their children. Due to concerns about exploitation, there continues to be an increasing legislative focus on family vlogging.

The Franke’s, a Mormon family in Utah with over 2 million subscribers, came on my radar in the late 2010s. Always fascinated by fundamentalists, I occasionally watched their seemingly wholesome and, at times, bizarre content. They were long gone from my content ecosystem when news broke of Ruby Franke’s horrifying abuse of her youngest children. This is a story of exploitation, coercion, and cultish thinking that we will likely be examining for years.

Check out Law&Crime’s podcast, “The Rise and Fall of Ruby Franke” for the entire maddening story. While the podcast itself is a bit repetitive, the contents will have you thinking about the why’s and how’s of the content you ingest. 

May the sun shine brightly on your backs, and every other exposed body part this weekend.

— Much Love From The Bullshit Hunting Crew

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