The Search for Nicola Bulley, review: an insight into the grotesque world of ‘TikTok sleuths’
The internet has given us many bad things, but “TikTok sleuths” have to be among the worst. In The Search for Nicola Bulley (BBC One), we saw some of them in action.
As you will probably remember, Nicola went missing while walking her dog by the riverbank in January last year. An initial search of the river found nothing but the police operation continued, while her family clung to the hope that she may still be alive. Her partner, Paul Ansell, had to deal with their two little girls running out of school at the end of each day and asking: “Have they found Mummy?”
At first, the family welcomed online interest, because it kept the story in the public eye and put pressure on the police to keep searching. But the nature of that interest quickly took a grotesque turn.
This documentary was a study in how one family’s tragedy was hijacked for clicks and likes. It featured a handful of the TikTokers and YouTubers who treated Nicola’s disappearance as popcorn entertainment (one of the accounts is actually called Popcorned Planet). A “true-crime content creator” from Norfolk explained her interest in the case: “She just seemed like a normal person, like myself. It could be me. Like, I walk my dogs.”
A South African YouTuber said that her followers were “more into the abduction theory than anything else”, in the same throwaway tone that you would use to say someone was more into pepperoni pizza than Hawaiian. One man filmed himself digging for a body. All of it was done for online engagement and a sense of self-importance. It would be funny if it weren’t so sickening. Why not join the police if you want to solve crimes, instead of sharing your half-baked theories with a bunch of stupid people on the internet?
Some media organisations, keen to get into the TikTok game, reported the story in the same “OMG guys” style. And, inevitably, conspiracy theories about Paul began to spread. Strangers began sending him messages saying: “We know what you did.” In a botched attempt to dampen the speculation, Lancashire Police stated publicly that Nicola had significant issues with alcohol, brought on by her struggles with the menopause. The cack-handed intervention only made things worse. “I understand, in hindsight, it might seem we didn’t need to do that,” said Det Supt Becky Smith, the senior investigating officer.
Nicola’s parents and sister, along with Paul, provided insight into what it is like for an ordinary family to find itself in this nightmare situation. They have lost someone they loved. Two girls have lost a mother. But for the TikTokers, it was all just content.
The Search for Nicola Bulley is on BBC One on Thursday 3 October; and on BBC iPlayer now