this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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Nicoled
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Hi, I'm Nicole! But you can call me the Fediverse Chick :D
For when you or others get nicoled.
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They look more like accidental or stolen/malicious pics from a laptop webcam to me. Whoever the person in the pictures is I hope they aren't being harassed or stalked or something.
These days it's hard to say for sure what's spam or some kind of social experiment or even a deranged person using social media to terrorize someone else.
One of the Friendica links had images from what looked like a video call from the person's phone while in a grocery store, possibly with someone that they are/were friendly with? Which makes me lean towards the video call theory. It would also be the simpler answer
The problem I have with this theory is how incredibly stupid it would be for someone to do this to a personal acquaintance. If you're sharing media that's instantly recognizable as private 2 party communication, the person being harassed knows exactly who to report. I know stalkers are a thing but are they really that stupid? Or is prosecution of these things so awful that they operate with little fear of the repercussions? I have a really hard time believing this scenario but maybe that's being naive.
The more likely thing to me would be someone that is fairly tech savvy trying to harass or extort someone. Maybe "Nicole" is someone who clicked a phishing link from a stalker. Maybe she's hated by whoever is behind the spam. It could be almost anything. We don't really have a lot to go on other than whoever it is isn't actually the person in the pictures.
We do know that they actively monitor either the talk about the spam or the attempts to stop the messages since the messages have changed in reaction to attempts to stop it. There was also mention of a picture that was posted and removed somewhere after someone else was spotted in the picture. Who's behind it all and why is still unclear but we know it's more than just bot traffic. If it's an ARG they could find a less annoying way to go about it.