For this former Jon & Kate Plus 8 star, life lately has been more like Kate Plus So Much Hate.
Kate Gosselin has endured threats to her and her children, insults, cursing, and name-calling on Twitter, and finally someone decided to intervene and put a stop to all the hate. James McGibney, who is the head of the anti-bullying site BullyVille.com, began exposing the real identities of Kate’s alleged Twitter harassers yesterday, and even went as far as threatening to contact some of their bosses!
He told Radar Online yesterday, “The names we are releasing today (regarding Kate) are the worst of the worst. The vicious. The ones who tell her she’s a child abuser, a (censored), that she should go kill herself. We are also contacting all their employers with their tweets. It’s 100% factual.”
McGibney, a former Marine, said, “We go after notorious bullies… They are absolutely vicious to Kate. One person sent over 72,000 tweets to Kate and they are all absolutely vicious.” The person that McGibney is referring to was just revealed to be a 62-year-old woman; one of her tweets to Kate, which was sent on her birthday, read, ““Happy bday u r a grifting, stealing, lying, child & animal c**t b*tch. Hope you choke on ur birthday cake. Remember Selena.” (The 23-year-old singer-songwriter Selena was fatally shot by the president of her fan club in 1995.)
Yesterday, McGibney announced on his site: “For the record: Bullyville is going after Kate Gosselin’s bullies for specific death threats and over 100,000 slanderous and libelous posts.”
One person who was outed by BullyVille told Radar Online, “He and bullyville put my name, address, phone number, my teen’s email address on (Web site redacted). For what!? Not liking Kate G? Now bullyville is saying he is going to call employers. I don’t know what he would say that would get me in trouble but I am a single mom living paycheck to paycheck and Bullyville and Kate G are the real bullies here… I never attacked, threatened or harrassed her.”
McGibney responded to such statements by saying that the Twitter bullies gave up their right to anonymity “when they start tweeting vile hate and tweeted and retweeted images of Kate’s death… They even used it as their….default thumbnail image. The fact that they’re claiming they’re being bullied is priceless, it truly is.”
He also told Fox 411’s Pop Tarts column about his experience contacting the employer of one such “bully”: “One employer, quite frankly, was stunned. [We] spoke to their director of HR and they even went directly onto Twitter to see the account in question for themselves… They had absolutely no idea this was occurring and assured us that the employee would be dealt with immediately. Based off of date/time stamps, it became apparent that the employee was conducting this harassment campaign at work.”
Some of the offensive tweets Kate received included, “You are a piece of sh*t and I hope your kids get hit by a car in ur care,” and “people like you are a disgrace to the human race.”
Yesterday, as the identities of Kate’s haters were being revealed on BullyVille, Kate tweeted at BullyVille: “you’re my Knight in shining Bully Proof Armor, like I’ve said before, many times : )”
Kate also recently tweeted: “yes I proudly support all LEGAL means to bring bullies – who thought they could hide to light—on the internet or in school. @bullyville #stop”
The reality star discussed her bullying experience on BullyVille’s site in early February, saying she handles all the hate by trying to ignore the bullies and letting her “haters” be her motivators. She stated that “bullies typically come from a place of jealousy.”
McGibney stressed that his goal is to out dangerous bullies and that going to the police in cases like these has proven ineffective. “Sometimes you have to be a bully to get a bully…. Kids are driven to suicide by bullies and we go after those bullies every day.”
UPDATE – James McGibney, head of BullyVille.com, has announced that he is seeking a class action lawsuit against the Twitter bullies who were allegedly making death threats, stalking, and harassing Kate Gosselin. On Tuesday, he tweeted: “After seeing death threats, pedophilia claims, theft & documented stalking against @Kateplusmy8 & fans, we’ve decided to file a class action lawsuit against the main offenders… The evidence is overwhelming and the victims deserve justice.”
McGibney has been receiving death threats since he exposed the identities of some of “Twitter bullies. Although some claim that he used illegal means to obtain and post their identities, McGibney insists everything he did was perfectly legal, even going so far as to post a step-by-step guide on how he uncovered information about their identities: “We’ve done nothing illegal,” he told Radar Online. “We are very good researchers. To get the info was super easy.”
Kate tweeted today: “FYI: I am in favor of any legal actions to stop all forms of bullying–including death threats and stalking–and if it that requires a court room setting involving a class action law suit, I support it. As always, I will do whatever it takes to keep my family safe.”
(Photo: Judy Eddy/WENN.com)
