YouTuber Elle Darby has been at the centre of quite the social media shitstorm lately, after a Dublin hotel publicly called her out for asking for a free five-night stay.
She got in touch with The White Moose Café in Dublin asking about a 'possible collaboration', quoting her social media reach. The owner, Paul Stenson, then posted a screenshot of her email, saying that it takes 'a lot of balls' to send an email like that, but 'not much self-respect and dignity'.
In a video titled 'My side of the story/moving on', Darby has now spoken out about the fiasco, which in less than a week has completely 'blown up'.
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She said she'd been 'torn up' over whether or not she should make the video, but that there were several issues that she wanted to get off her chest.
"The first idea is that I exposed myself," she began. "This is not true in any way, shape or form. If you believe this you were probably late on the band wagon with this whole situation.
"At about 10 o'clock on Tuesday morning a post was uploaded to Facebook, which included a screenshot of my email."
Darby explained how while her name had been scribbled out, if people turned up brightness on their screens they could see her name underneath.
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"I'm not going to say the names that I've been called, but a lot of people have been assuming that I was upset with the idea that the hotel owner 'refused' my stay, and that is absolutely not true, either."
The third issue she discusses is that she was called out for being 'ageist' in her last video, implying that anyone over the age of 30 didn't understand social media - something else she refutes.
She added: "I'm very sorry if I offended anybody."
Credit: Elle Darby / YouTube
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It's at this point that Darby starts to break down, saying that the fourth point she wants to talk about is the amount of messages she's been getting.
"To be completely honest, it's just been really overwhelming. People telling me that I should die, they hope my children get cancer, I've been called almost every name under the sun - words that I didn't even know existed."
She revealed that she had had to visit her GP to discuss the anxiety that she suffered from as a direct result of the incident.
"From what I can think - assume, I don't even know - [it] was supposed to be a bit of a joke from the other person involved in the situation," she continued, adding: "This hasn't been fair."
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She also said that this video would mark the last time she would talk about it, urging others to think twice about calling people out on social media.
Featured Image Credit: Elle Darby / YouTubeTopics: Social Media, UK, youtuber