BY MIA ROBERTSON

Celebrity gossip posts known as ‘blind items’ have been making a comeback on social media, but there are still many out there who are yet to know exactly what they are. 

When TikTok creator Shannon McNammara's video on blind items blew up last July, she was initially shocked at the confused reaction she received from her viewers.

“People were like ‘what is a ‘blind item? I’ve never even heard of that phrase before'," Ms McNammara said.

“I kind of assumed everyone else had heard of them.”

Initially gaining traction in the early days of the internet, ‘blind items’ are often websites containing celebrity gossip tidbits that reveal scandalous celebrity rumours.

The premise of a ‘blind item’ is usually a riddled, or coded, post that prompts readers to speculate rumours about the targeted celebrity - which are often later revealed. 

Ms McNammara’s TikTok account, @FluentlyFoward, has now accumulated more than 300,000 followers since her first viral video last year due to high requests for content centreing on revealing popular blind items on various celebrities. 

“Of course they want to know about celebrities,” she said.

However, Ms McNammara said she often faced criticism about how gossip and rumour were being promoted in the form of these ‘blind items’.

“But then they also want to know how do you not get sued, who writes this, how do you find this information out,” she said.

“Things like that.

“It is a little bit of a shameful hobby to have… no one's proud of celebrity gossip, but I think you should be caring because these people have so much influence.”

More recently, ‘blind items’ have been moving from websites to social media platforms, such as Instagram. 

One of these is DeuxMoi, which is run anonymously and often posts content that include celebrity sightings contributed by followers among the typical riddled style blinds across Instagram, Reddit and their podcast.  

“Most ‘blind items’ websites are websites online, on the html, Deuxmoi is the only one who's taken to Instagram,” Ms McNammara said. 

“Overall it’s doing a good thing. I think the more people talk about ‘blinds’ and openly share information, like, I think it's cool to make those networks happen no matter who's doing it.” 

However, Deuxmoi has often been accused of being less trustworthy than original ‘blind item’ anonymously-run websites like CrazyDaysandNights. That site is well-known for its range of speculation posts such as Taylor Swift’s alleged hidden relationship to Karlie Kloss.

Many have dismissed blind items in the past for being falsehoods or unverified rumour, frequently placing them in the same realm as conspiracy theories.

On her podcast @FluentlyFoward, Ms McNammara has discussed popular celebrity ‘blind items’ and conspiracy theories in more detail, but has always acknowledged that these should not be taken as a fact. 

In the context of celebrity and entertainment journalism, these 'blind items' have continually  been seen as separate to the mainstream media. 

However, Ms McNammara said ‘blind items’ have the potential to play a large role in celebrity news within the mainstream media space and that journalists should dig deeper to find the truth to these rumours. 

“Right now, these are all unverified and the job of the journalist is to verify them.”  

Ultimately, creators like @FluentlyFoward and @Duexmoi have helped in the resurgence of ‘blind items’ in the presence of mainstream social media.