Abstract

Webinar link: https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/85064201826?pwd=4jEStNta7Ieq6kgaTvx7zRdQGPdmWW.1

Approximately 3.5 million pages of correspondence between Jeffrey Epstein and his wide network (with notable omissions and redactions) were released in January 2026. This is far from the many tens of millions of posts collected for the database held at the CCC known as ExtremeBB, but as I started digging into the Epstein files and reading through a wide range of subjects and tones, I was reminded of my time at CCC digging through ExtremeBB. Although the organising principle of the dataset, my methodology, and the socio-economic background of the authors of the material were all very different, the echoes between the two jobs were impossible to ignore. This talk presents the similarities – while acknowledging the differences – of the two tranches of data, and what that tells us about our society.

Lydia Wilson is a visiting scholar at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge, and culture editor of New Lines magazine, where her work on Epstein was published.