Popular TikTok content creator Alix Earle is opening up about recent claims she attempted to trademark offensive comments on Askfm. According to Variety, the 23-year-old shared a statement on Instagram Stories, admitting to and apologizing for using a racial slur on the question-and-answer website in 2014.
What did Alix Earle say in her apology?
“A couple of weeks ago, screenshots surfaced from my old ask.fm account showing me using a slur in the summer of 2014,” she wrote. “I am taking accountability and want to make it clear that I was 13 years old and did not understand the deeply offensive meaning behind that word. That is no excuse for using that word in any context or at any age. That is absolutely not the way I speak or what I stand for.”
She added, “I am deeply sorry that my words have hurt many and have led people to believe that I have any prejudice in my heart. I promise you that could not be further from the truth.”
What exactly did Alex Earle say in the resurfaced posts?
Pictures of Earle’s offensive comments resurfaced on the Alix Earle Snark Reddit community in December 2022. Other platforms, like TikTok and other subreddits, picked up the screenshots earlier this month.
As Page Six reports, “The posts showed her using the racial slur [the n-word] under the username ‘Alixxxxxx’ while responding to others on the platform, which allowed users to ask questions either publicly or anonymously.”
One subreddit in particular, named after the Do We Know Them? podcast hosted by Jessi Smiles and Lily Marston, reshared the pictures, prompting Earle’s legal team to contact the hosts allegedly.
“Her lawyer contacted us and said that we have violated their copyright,” Smiles shared in an Aug. 12 episode of Do We Know Them? “People posted screenshots of [her racist posts] in our subreddit, and her lawyer said that they have a trademark to that,” she added.
Smiles explained that they are not affiliated with the subreddit.
“We don’t moderate it, we don’t have any access to it,” she said.
In Earle’s statement, she responded to Smith’s claims, calling them “absolutely ridiculous and untrue.”
“In the absence of my addressing this, my silence allowed others to fill the void with rumors that simply aren’t true,”Earle said.
She added, “I regret how I handled this situation, allowing too many people to talk me out of saying something for too long,” Earle added. “I wasn’t sure how to handle it and unfortunately the advice I was given, although well intended, was wrong. There is no one to blame but myself for not standing my ground and going with my gut to speak right away.”
Smiles and Marston shared a statement regarding the situation with Variety on Monday evening.
“While we cannot speak to the legitimacy or existence of any trademarks or copyrights, we can confirm that we received an email from an entity identifying itself as WEB SHERIFF,” it read. “This entity claimed to act as the rights agent for Alix Earle, and had written the email to notify us of 11 different alleged infringements and violations. The email was signed by John E. Henehan LL.B., who asserted under penalty of perjury that he is ‘either the intellectual property rights owner or authorized to act on behalf of the owners of the exclusive rights that are allegedly infringed.'”
They also addressed the trademarking claims.
“Based on Alix’s statement, the implication is that this email was sent without her knowledge or authorization,” they said in the statement. “If that is the case, while unfortunate and out of her control, it would certainly be in her best interest to clarify that to set the record straight.”
Earle has yet to address the situation further.
