Articles & Essays
Investigations, commentary, and long-form journalism from Kate Peter
11 posts
The Cost of Staying Silent When Someone Is Being Destroyed Online
When a mob forms online, most people watch. Some cheer. Very few speak up. That silence is not neutrality. It is a choice, and it has a cost that we rarely talk about honestly.
The Danger of Knowing: Certainty, Crowds, and the True Crime Problem
Online true crime communities have turned real cases (and real people) into arenas for collective verdict-rendering. The problem is not the interest. It is the certainty.
Section 230 and the Business of Impunity
Section 230 was written to protect a nascent internet from liability it could not survive. What it became is a legal shield that lets the most profitable companies in human history monetize harm without consequence. That is not what it was for.
The Attention Economy Is Eating Us Alive
We were told the internet would set us free. Instead, we handed our minds to platforms that profit from keeping us angry, anxious, and unable to look away.
The Playbook: How Entertainment Press Covers Celebrity Assault Allegations
When a celebrity faces a sexual assault allegation, the entertainment press follows a predictable script -- one that rarely serves the truth, the public, or anyone involved.
When a Courtroom Becomes Content
Alleged jury filming in the Clancy case shows how true crime spectacle can threaten a fair trial and harm people already living through loss.
Internet Safety: What to Do If You Are Doxxed
Doxxing is a weapon. It is used to silence people, to intimidate them, to make them afraid to speak. Here is what you need to know if it happens to you.
The Lindsay Clancy Case: Empathy, Spectacle, and the Victims We Forget
Maternal mental health is a real and serious crisis. But the fervor surrounding the Lindsay Clancy trial is erasing the three children she killed and turning a courtroom into a circus.
The Corporate Narrative Machine: How Big Media Shapes What You Believe
Six corporations control 90% of what Americans read, watch, and hear. Understanding how that concentration of power shapes the news is the first step to seeing through it.