No one knows what’s going on with Lil Tay after reports of Instagram star’s death

From the beginning, Lil Tay’s online presence has had people wondering what to believe.

Lil Tay first garnered attention in 2018 when a girl claiming to be a nine-year-old living the high life in Hollywood posted videos filled with profanities, insults and boasting. It was later learned she was living in Vancouver, the daughter of a lawyer and real estate agent.

Five years later, more serious questions have emerged. Earlier this week a message on Lil Tay’s long-dormant verified Instagram account claimed she and her brother had died.

The post spread across social media with more than a few readers questioning whether the claims were real or fake.

Even among skeptics, there were concerns for her well-being.

The story of Lil Tay is a house of mirrors with few confirmed details. It could be a story of the tragic death of two young people. It could be about a young person seeking attention, or people seeking profit, or someone being manipulated by others behind the scenes. It could also be a story of someone targeted by a hacker.

Lil Tay’s story also highlights, experts say, how social media can negatively affect younger viewers and how greater digital literacy is needed to help them separate fact from fiction.

“I just have so many questions and I don’t think anyone’s going to get answers to those anytime soon,” said Lindsay Sealey, CEO of Bold New Girls, which provides teaching, consulting and mentoring for girls.

What we know about Lil Tay

The whirlwind of posts began Wednesday morning before 9 a.m. PT, with an unattributed Instagram statement that announced Lil Tay’s “sudden and tragic passing.” The post announced her brother, Jason, also died.

In 2018, Instagram had verified to CBC News that her parent managed the account, but it’s not clear who does now or who made the post.

“This outcome was entirely unexpected and has left us all in shock,” read the post to her 3.3 million followers. ‘Her brother’s passing adds an even more unimaginable depth to our grief.”

Within minutes, some culture sites, along with international and B.C. media were repeating news about the viral star’s death, citing the Instagram post as “the family confirms.”

But any attempts to confirm that, with calls or emails to her parents, her former manager, or law enforcement yielded no such certainty. CBC News could not immediately reach Lil Tay’s mother by phone.

The post said her death is still under investigation, but when CBC News contacted the Vancouver Police Department, Burnaby RCMP, B.C. Coroners Service, and the Los Angeles County coroner where Lil Tay was reported to have lived in the last five years, they had no information.

“We are not aware and are not investigating,” wrote Vancouver police in an emailed statement.

Her former manager said he’d seen the post, but couldn’t “confirm or dismiss” its legitimacy. Without any confirmation of the death, CBC did not report on it, but continued to work on confirming details, including requests for information from Global Affairs Canada and Interpol.

As the day wore on, amid all the “RIP Lil Tay” posts on X, formerly Twitter, some fans were crying “sus” — doubting it was real — along with reporters who had gotten nowhere with efforts to confirm.

By Thursday, the original statement was removed from Instagram, and TMZ was reporting that it received a statement Lil Tay is alive and she claims her account had been hacked.

That version of events has also not been confirmed.

Social media posts can affect audience

If the teen is safe, the mystery may appear to be just another round of misinformation — or a hoax — on the internet.

But Sealey of Bold New Girls says it can have impacts in the real world, and it’s important to consider how a story like Lil Tay’s could affect a younger audience.

“There are people who are going through sadness or anxiety or depression and they hear about someone who they respect and follow on social media has died, or has some tragedy in their life, I think that could really negatively impact them,” Sealey said.

She says social media users, whether they have three million followers or just three followers, should consider how their posts can affect their audience.

“On social media, I think there’s often this sense that it’s no big deal. No one really cares. It doesn’t matter what I put out there or post,” she said.

“I think all of us can do a better job of being very sensitive and very aware of what it is that we’re posting and putting out there, and how that could affect anyone else.”

Need for greater regulation, digital literacy: expert

The jarring juxtaposition of a young child spewing foul language helped propel Lil Tay to internet fame and notoriety, but amid all the controversy and confusion, it’s easy to forget there is a real person at the centre of the story.

It’s a story tailor-made to draw attention online, says Jesse Miller, a B.C.-based social media expert who educates kids on internet safety.

He says Lil Tay’s rise to fame in 2018 put the focus on how “parents or families may exploit their children in the presence of the rise of social media.”

He argues that young internet stars should be subject to regulation similar to those applied to child actors in television and films.

“We should look more and more at the idea that the rise of Internet culture and internet promotion allows parents to actually make money off their children where there isn’t really a lot of government oversight or employer oversight,” Miller said. “Just like Hollywood, maybe we should start exploring that.”

The allure of Lil Tay’s profanity-laced rants can be compounded by the lack of details about her as online sleuths try to parse any detail, no matter how small, to determine what’s going on behind the scenes.

Miller notes that online sleuthing can take a dark turn, as when users on Reddit incorrectly speculated on the identity of the attacker or attackers in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.

Miller, who has given presentations on digital literacy at B.C. schools for more than 15 years, says education is key. He says it’s also important for parents to talk with children about what they watch online and make sure they don’t fall down internet rabbit holes.

“We actually need to have roundtable conversations, the dinner table conversation … What type of content is appropriate for the family home and then having really healthy conversations about that content.”

It remains unclear where Lil Tay is, how she’s doing, and who posted the Instagram statement that sparked global speculation about the teenage girl — and why.