Nicola slams TikTok sleuths’ ‘toxic’ interest in Bully

Social media interest in the disappearance of Nicola Bulley threatens to undermine future missing person investigationsA former police commissioner warned.

The proliferation of videos about Ms Bulley on social media platform TikTok now coincides with the times of Sarah Everard’s abduction and murder, figures show.

Lancashire Police have failed to make significant progress in their search for the mother-of-two, prompting amateur detectives to speculate online about Miss Bulley’s fate since she disappeared three weeks ago.

Martin Underhill, Dorset’s former police and crime commissioner, warned that the “unprecedented” rise of social media could set a dangerous precedent for future cases.

“This is the first missing persons case of this magnitude Toxic behavior on social media“The retired Detective Chief Inspector of Sussex told The Telegraph. “This is more than what happened in other cases like Sarah Everard.

“My fear is that this will set a precedent in the future, for TikTok detectives to descend on the scene with their speculations and delusional theories.”

Lancashire Police allowed speculation about Miss Bulley’s case to spread “without setting the media agenda” from the start, he suggested.

“Social media detectives have stepped into the information vacuum left by Lancashire Police,” he said. “Police need to change the way they conduct similar investigations to take social media into account.”

Videos discussing Miss Bully and using her name as a hashtag have accumulated more than 289.5 million views since she disappeared three weeks ago.

People using the hashtag “Nicola Bulley Search” have 21.2 million views while “Nicola Bulley husband” has 1.2 million views.

By comparison, public sentiment over the March 2021 abduction and killing of Ms Everard by on-duty police officer Wayne Couzens produced similar viewing figures but for much longer.

The hashtag Sarah Everard has received 308 million views on TikTok, while the hashtag Justice for Sarah Everard has 65.7 million views.

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Since Miss Bully disappeared on January 27 while walking her dog Willow on a footpath overlooking the River Wear in Lancashire, an Instagram “reel” using her name has had more than 158 million views, while posts have had almost 115,000 interactions – including likes, follows and comments.

On YouTube, videos using the same term have received a total of 3.3 million views, with Twitter citing nearly 21 million views.

Lancashire Police has criticized efforts by “TikTok-ers” to “play their own private detectives”.

Film emerged on Saturday of men digging in local woodland as part of an apparent DIY search for a missing 45-year-old man.

It came as Police continued their search on the River Wyre and Estuary in Fleetwood, a day after announcing an internal review of their handling of the case.

Officials say social media speculation has hindered their investigation and led them to be “inundated with false information, allegations and rumours”.

Debt Supt Rebecca Smith In a press conference last week Amateur speculation on social media “significantly confused” the investigation, saying: “In 29 years of police service, I have never seen anything like this.”

Coverage of Ms Bulley’s case on social media has angered her home village of St Michael’s.

A local dog walker, who gave his name only as John, told the Telegraph: “This TikTok thing is ridiculous. It’s a lot of people playing armchair detective and speculating about something they know nothing about.”

John, who was picking up litter, said it had been left by “bystanders” near the bench where Ms Bulley was last seen, adding: “It’s not helping the police at all. These videos just attract more people who have nothing to contribute. But just want to be a part of it.”

In a further indicator of the obsessive behavior generated by the case, the data shows that TikTok videos of Ms Bulley’s friends and family “crisis actors” staged events have accumulated more than 1.5 million views.

Some videos even alleged that the government made the case as a “confusion”.

Ms Bulley’s family called for an end to “speculation and rumours”, adding: “The public’s focus should be on finding her and not on wild theories about her personal life.”

Lancashire Constabulary said on Friday Ms Bulley will launch an internal review of her findings It will be led by Det Chief Superintendent Pauline Stables, its head of crime.

Dr. Bahini so far Resisted the call to bring in an external force Investigating the handling of the case, including the controversial decision to release information about Mrs Bulley’s struggles with alcohol and menopause.

Suella Braverman, Secretary of the Interior, Chief Constable of Lancashire spoke to Chris Rowley And his senior team about the investigation and “asked to be kept updated on the investigation”.