If you love social media as much as we do, then you probably know that insane stuff happens all the time. And every now and then, it can lead to humongous controversy. So, it doesn’t really matter if folks on social media have millions of supporters or not. One little mistake is all it takes for someone to go from social media celeb to pariah! Check out these scandals and you’ll see what we’re talking about.
Teen Influencer Quits Instagram, Calls It a Big Fat Lie
Australian teenager Essena O’Neill earned a decent pay posting bikini-clad selfies on Instagram. She had over 600,000 followers at the time. But one day, she couldn’t take it anymore. Essena went online and told her fans she was quitting Instagram for good as she felt it was all nothing but a lie. She then deleted more than 2,000 pics that according to her, “served no real purpose other than self-promotion.” Essen felt she was lying and manipulating her fan base with her uber-curated pics. But YouTubers Nina and Randa claimed that everything Essena was saying was an exaggeration and that she did this because she was simply trying to grab her followers’ attention. But Essena responded to the accusations by claiming she’s felt this way about social media for a while now.
The Diet That Didn’t Beat Cancer
Scammer Belle Gibson claims to have used a healthy diet to beat a terminal brain cancer diagnosis. As you can imagine, her claims led to thousands of people who were desperately fighting the illness to follow her on social media. Belle went as far as to publish a cookbook packed with recipes that claimed to cure cancer. She even developed an app. But people started paying attention to the Australian mom when she failed to give thousands of dollars which she had promised to donate to approximately five charities. Then claims came to light that she had never had cancer in the first place, which caused her to delete her social media accounts. Apple also pulled her app, and her book, “The Whole Pantry,” got taken off the shelves.
James Franco’s Creepy Texts
Scottish teen Lucy Clode took a few selfies with actor James Franco in the background after a Broadway production in which he starred in. Then Franco told the teen that she should post the selfies on Instagram and tag him in them, which she did. Eventually, the actor and the schoolgirl started texting back and forth. At one point, Franco even tried convincing her to come to his hotel room. Lucy later posted the conversation on Imgur, but was later removed. However, the creepy texts were saved and continue to float around cyberspace.
Parent Prank Backfires
YouTube banned vloggers Michael and Heather Martin, also known as DaddyOFive after the parents were convicted of child neglect while filming their popular “prank” videos. In one particular video, Michael was seen spraying disappearing ink on his son’s bedroom floor. Then he called the child and scolded him for it. But as the kid broke down, Michael told him it was a prank. This wasn’t the only prank Michael and Heather pulled on their kids. Some of the cruel jokes they played on their kids were almost too hard to watch, making people question why they had a following in the first place. Eventually, their online shenanigans led to the couple losing custody of two of their kids.
Stop or My Dad Will Shoot
Tommy Jordan shot his daughter’s laptop and caught the dramatic moment on camera. Then, he posted the video on YouTube. But why did he go a far as to mess with his daughter’s electronics? According to Tommy, the teen girl had posted a bratty Facebook post ranting about her family. She claimed her parents treated her like a slave for making her do chores around the house. Understandably, Tommy lost it and felt like it was time to teach his daughter a lesson. But he never expected that the video would be seen by over a million people. It received a couple of critiques and praises from parents. But it also led to the cops and child protective services to investigate.
Vegan Vlogger Eats Fish
Vlogger Yovana Mendoza Ayres, aka Rawvana, was a self-proclaimed vegan influencer who had a fanbase of over 2 million followers. But all that changed when she was caught with fish on her plate in a video shared on another YouTuber’s channel. Followers felt betrayed but there was a reasonable explanation behind her actions. She posted a 33-minute video where she stated that she had to incorporate eggs and fish into her diet as a result of having low thyroid levels, developing small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) and was basically anemic.
PewDiePie Stirs Up Trouble
In 2017, Felix Kjellberg, aka PewDiePie, came under fire for hiring two guys who held up an anti-Semitic sign. But in 2018, PewDiePie stirred up trouble again when he called YouTuber Lilly Singh a “crybaby” and an “idiot” because she talked about wage and gender inequality.
Logan Paul’s Japanese Controversy
In late 2017, YouTuber Logan Paul posted a video that showed him paying a visit to Japan’s Aokigahara Forest where people go when they’re planning on ending their lives. But Logan stumbled into the body of a person who had passed away, and he shot the entire thing. Later on, he was making light of the tragedy, which left people reeling in shock and anger at his insensitivity.
#SaveMarinaJoyce
YouTube followers became concerned when they noticed Marina Joyce acting all frightened on her channel. Some viewers swore they heard her whispering “help me” on one of her videos. So, fans feared that she was being held hostage and started the hashtag #SaveMarinaJoyce. It was only after cops got involved that it became clear that she was in no danger. In fact, some people believe she orchestrated the whole thing to get attention. Wowzers!
Paul Dawson Feeds Son Hot Sauce
Paul Dawson went on Facebook and wrote about how he tried to pacify his son by putting his knuckle in his five-day-old baby’s mouth. But he was at a TGIF restaurant at the time and had just eaten hot wings. So, essentially, his son ate hot sauce by accident. Two days later, cops showed up at his home to question him about what happened. But after Paul’s girlfriend clarified that it was an accident, the cops apologized and left. Still, you can imagine the uproar!
