The DeuxMoi subreddit is rebelling

“this sub may have a lot of differing opinions but the one thing that brings us all together is our strong dislike of deuxmoi”

Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, from Kate Lindsay and Nick Catucci.

Getting my biases out front. —Kate

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Meltdown May has come and gone, but I’d like to give a special shoutout to DeuxMoi. While the celebrity gossip account didn’t melt down in the traditional fashion (going buck wild on main), it completed its transformation from “buzzy and mysterious forum for citizen journalists” to “unglamorous capitalist money hole.” We learned that the DeuxMoi book (not yet published) would be getting adapted for HBO Max, and, courtesy of the writer Brian Feldman, the (alleged) identities of its founders. 

If you were part of the DeuxMoi subreddit, then this dulling of the account's sheen wasn’t exactly surprising. I had first noticed the sub's skepticism toward its subject while researching the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial. Then, DeuxMoi all but confirmed it with a tweet, writing that the account “is not in any shape or form associated” with the sub, and “never was.”

And here's what one user had to say in the sub itself: “This sub may have a lot of differing opinions but the one thing that brings us all together is our strong dislike of deuxmoi.”

“What I find hilarious is that this subreddit is 49% gossip, 51% roasting deuxmoi non stop lol,” another wrote.

The relationship between a piece of cultural ephemera and Reddit is usually pretty straightforward: a movie, TV show, or other form of content exists, and its fandom congregates in a corresponding subreddit. Love Island has r/LoveIslandTV, the My Favorite Murder podcast has r/MyFavoriteMurder, and so on. If the subreddit is specifically about criticizing or snarking on a topic, it usually ends with “snark” or a similar marker—Caroline Calloway critics use r/SmolBeanSnark, for example.

But the DeuxMoi subreddit is something else. I messaged with a user in their early 30s who has been following DeuxMoi since the early days—when it was private and the blinds still disappeared—and said that while they occasionally saw criticism of the account in the subreddit in the past, they “definitely see it a lot more often now.” A number of other users told me that by the time they joined, as far back as a year ago, the subreddit had already turned on its subject. And many others in the subreddit frequently chime in to say that they have never followed or even heard of DeuxMoi at all—that instead, the sub itself is just the best place they know of for celebrity gossip. 

“There was definitely a moment in DeuxMoi where she switched from posting gossip blinds to what I can only describe as being a semi-influencer,” the early follower told me over Reddit direct message (everyone I spoke to requested to be anon pls). “The girl, whoever she is, started to take the account and herself a little too seriously: snappy responses, biased reporting. But also at the same time, half of the IG is now not what it was originally for (blinds). It’s no longer ‘here’s a blind, read it, forget I was the one who told you.’ It’s now, ‘this is the tea, here’s a possible reveal on my other account, don’t forget you heard it here first!’”

“Another big complaint is that she's terrible at recognizing Black and other PoC celebrities or even posting about them,” another user told me. “There have been quite a few times when she posted Sunday Spottings of Black celebrities that end up being just random Black people.”

(DeuxMoi, whoever it is, did not respond to my request for comment)

A couple of users told me there is a theory that the account changed hands at some point, and that's what led to the change. (The DeuxMoi brand, which dates back to the early 2010s, was originally run by two people, but this theory focuses on the past few years, when it is believed that just one person has been behind it at any given time.) 

“It's kind of interesting to see [the account change from] someone who has an ‘in,’ who was cool and clearly highly connected like a girlfriend who has a cool life and social circle, to clearly someone who is NOT cool or is taking it way too seriously now,” one user says. “Whoever was running the page before had a completely different attitude, neutral, and knew what the page provided. But now, the account is full of ‘explanations’ or more personal drama or opinions—like we just want to know the tea and we want confirmation it is real.”

A recent crack in the DeuxMoi community involves, of all people, Jonah Hill. After DeuxMoi posted a blind about an A-list celebrity getting engaged, the actor announced that it was not him. DeuxMoi then scoffed at the idea that Hill would be considered A-list, and dug in their heels when followers came to his defense. 

“It’s kind of a running joke on the subreddit right now,” a user told me. 

Despite—or because of—the growing disdain for their namesake, the subreddit has “become a lot more than just a DeuxMoi sub.”

“It's been sort of my internet happy place for the past year and it's where I go to forget about my day and problems and just laugh at the jokes people make on the sub,” a user told me. 

“The excitement I used to have for the old DeuxMoi, I now have for this sub, but bigger,” another user said. “It manages to be lively while still light and anonymous. It’s the vibe DeuxMoi probably wanted her IG to grow into.”

Users also pointed out that the subreddit is a rare space on the internet that is not dominated by people who support Johnny Depp in his defamation suit against Amber Heard.

“It's one of the few safe spaces on the internet for people that support Amber Heard or at the very least are skeptical of what's happening and can see that there's a smear campaign that goes beyond Heard and is targeting the entire #metoo movement,” a user told me. “The sub may have DeuxMoi's name but I think it's doing a far better job than its namesake at both sharing celebrity news AND stopping the spread of misinformation.”

In fact, the sub’s attitude toward the Depp/Heard trial is what prompted DeuxMoi to distance itself from the subreddit on Twitter, writing, “I have no control over that Reddit & have actually asked them to change the name of it.”

In response, the subreddit cheekily changed the title of the page to r/NotDeuxMoi. But the official URL is still r/DeuxMoi. And with 122,000 members, the sub is now a community of its own—and arguably the true heir to the original spirit behind the name.