Alix Earle Has Allegedly Trademarked Her Past Racist Posts to Keep People From Sharing Them Online
"This is extremely creative but diabolical."
Published Aug. 26 2024, 3:59 p.m. ET
When someone blows up online, it has become par for the course that netizens will parse through every inch of that person's digital background to find something unsavory — and while searchers will sometimes come up empty-handed, it's not uncommon that they'll uncover exactly what they're looking for.
In the case of Alix Earle, this recently came in the form of a handful of offensive, racist posts she had previously made on the social platform ASKfm.
While many influencers in her shoes would break out their webcams and film an apology video (ukulele, anyone?) Alix has allegedly taken a more creative strategy to get people off her back.
According to hosts Jessie Smiles and Lily Marston of the Do We Know Them? podcast, they were hit with a cease and desist from Alix's legal team claiming that they had violated copyright law by sharing screenshots of the posts. Yes, copyright law.
Here's what we know.
Alix Earle allegedly trademarked her past racist posts.
In late August 2023, several incriminating screenshots were surfaced allegedly showing Alix Earle using racial slurs on ASKfm in 2014. The posts, many of which contained the n-word, were shared by users on the Alix Earle Snark Reddit page and subsequently spread to other platforms and subreddits.
One such subreddit was r/DoWeKnowThemPodcast, an aptly named page run by fans of Jessie Smiles and Lily Marston's show. And while Jessie and Lily do not have any official affiliation with the subreddit, it seems that Alix Earle's legal team have placed blame on them for the screenshots being spread.
In a recent episode of their podcast, the duo shared that they were contacted by Alix's lawyers: "Her lawyer contacted us and said that we have violated their copyright ... People posted screenshots of [her racist posts] in our subreddit, and her lawyer said that they have a trademark to that," Jessie said.
"Oh, that's a creative tactic," her co-host Lily quipped.
In response, fans have called Alix out for the "diabolical" effort to keep her controversial posts under wraps: "Every day I pray on Alix Earle’s downfall," one user on TikTok wrote.
