There are two Clancy trials – one in court and one onlinepublished at 18:45 BST
18:45 BST
Shaimaa Khalil
North America correspondent
Image source, Getty Images
The huge debate surrounding this case is playing
out just as intensely online.
A sweep through TikTok, YouTube and X shows that
it is not only major news organisations following every moment of the trial.
Content creators and self-styled legal and medical experts are dissecting testimony, analysing Lindsay Clancy’s every reaction and producing their own
timelines and theories.
Hundreds of thousands of TikTok videos have
reportedly appeared under #Clancy, while hashtags including #LindsayClancy
and #PostpartumPsychosis have drawn supporters, critics and individuals sharing their own experiences of maternal mental illness.
Some of the coverage
has been informative. Some has blurred fact, opinion and speculation, including
entirely unsupported theories about Clancy’s former husband, who is not a suspect and has never been under suspicion by investigators.
There are also
comments treating the proceedings as entertainment: people writing that they
are “grabbing the popcorn” or planning “watch parties” for particular
witnesses.
The influence of social media even reached the actual courtroom. The
defence sought to call a former McLean Hospital employee after she posted a
viral TikTok criticising the prosecution’s portrayal of the hospital.
She was
questioned outside the jury’s presence, but the judge ruled that her evidence
was inadmissible.
In the age of social media, jurors in a case like this must
isolate themselves from an enormous parallel conversation – and decide Lindsay
Clancy’s fate solely on the evidence they have heard inside the courtroom