People feel "betrayed" by Twitter account @emoblackthot after they revealed their true identity

14 October 2019, 17:49

By Jazmin Duribe

Um, this is WILD.

The identity of one of Twitter's most popular accounts – @emoblackthot – has just been revealed and absolutely no-one saw it coming. In case you didn't know, the Twitter account was popular among the black community and offered supportive self-care advice to its 177,000 followers, including the likes of singer Kehlani and rapper Megan Thee Stallion. Many believed the person behind the account was a black woman named Nicole… but they were a man all along.

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Basically, Isaiah Hickland came forward on 11 October to confess that he was the person behind emoblackthot in an interview with Paper magazine and on YouTube. In a 20-minute video titled "The Reveal / My Story", Isaiah explained how he became emoblackthot.

It all began nearly four years ago when he first posted under the handle @madblackthot. Being a black and not openly bisexual male, Isaiah used the account to vent whilst being stuck in predominately white Texas State University, without it affecting his public image, where he was subject to homophobic and racist slurs. The @madblackthot account was suspended over a copyright infringement issue in 2017, so he then took the handle @emoblackthot over from a friend of a friend, who was indeed a black woman.

emoblackthot would support up-and-coming black creatives and tweet advice, especially for queer black women. Isaiah referred to himself as Nicole, had she/her pronouns in "her" Twitter bio, spoke about periods, having endometriosis (although these tweets have been deleted) and frequently posted their CashApp for people to send them money. Although people had their suspicions about their account (some thought it might be singer Normani or even Rihanna), no-one was expecting this.

View this post on Instagram

#EMOBLACKTHOT is ready to reveal himself. #Linkinbio to meet the man who’s remained anonymous with 177k followers on twitter. Written by @sndrsng

A post shared by Paper Magazine (@papermagazine) on Oct 11, 2019 at 7:18am PDT

"People were relying on me for self-care and advice, and they'd DM me whenever they were going through it," he told Paper. "Paragraphs of people in need of advice, financial help, someone to talk to. I couldn't just disappear. At the same time, I fucking hated it. I wanted to disappear."

After hyping up the big reveal for a while, fans of the account felt betrayed by the stunt Isaiah had pulled. In particular, queer black women who had shared personal stories with him and trusted him.

The internet reacted in the only way it could... with memes.

Even Kehlani tweeted – and deleted – about the whole ordeal.

Shortly after the announcement, Isaiah apologised on Twitter from the emoblackthot account. He tweeted: "To black women: I want to sincerely apologize. the intention of my actions doesn't matter, the impact & how they make you feel does. I take full accountability for my actions and I'm sorry."

In the video, Isaiah said he hopes that despite revealing his identity people would continue to support him, but he would understand if they didn't. He now plans to take a digital detox and hopes to get into singing, acting or being a beauty influencer. He'd especially like to become a DJ.

For now, the @emoblackthot account appears to have been deleted from Twitter and the majority of its tweets were wiped just before the reveal. Meanwhile Isaiah's YouTube video also seems to have been removed.

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