Elle Darby: Influencer banned by luxury hotel hits back in new video

'To be completely honest it’s just been really overwhelming. People telling me I should die, that they hope my children get cancer.'

YouTuber Elle Darby has released another video about the uproar surrounding her email to a Dublin hotel enquiring about the possibility of accommodation in return for coverage on her social media channels.

“There is so much more that needs to be said,” 22-year-old Darby says. “The past week is not what I expected it to be.”

The White Moose Cafe publicly criticised Darby, announced they would ban bloggers from their hotel, sent out a fake invoice for the exposure the scandal had afforded her and even created T-shirts emblazoned with “I got exposed by the White Moose.”

Darby has been largely silent since she released an original video response not long after the hotel’s initial post, but she decided to make one more video on the subject before putting the scandal behind her.

“The situation has completely blown up and I feel like there are a few things I should explain or discuss,” Darby says.

“After this video I’m not going to address it, I’m not going to talk about it, it’s not going to be something that rules my life as it has over the past few days.”

The first point Darby addresses is the fact that she didn’t expose herself. “This is not true in any way, shape or form,” she says.

The blogger explains that her name hadn’t been properly blacked out on the hotel’s Facebook post, and she doesn’t know whether they deliberately tried to expose her or “just did a very poor job of trying to keep my identity hidden.”

She also clarified that she wasn’t upset because her request for a business collaboration had been rejected, it was because of the way White Moose Cafe owner Paul Stenson acted.

“I’m not going to say the names I’ve been called but a lot of people have been saying I was upset because the hotel owner refused my stay and that is absolutely not true either,” Darby explains. “Any business owner is more than entitled to refuse a business proposal.”

But, she goes on: “He could’ve just said no,” instead of reacting in the way he did and leaving her with “death threats and cancer wishes.”

Darby explains that she’s not ageist and doesn’t believe people over the age of 30 don’t understand social media, but she merely found that the majority of the abusive messages she’d received were from men who appeared to be in their 40s and 50s.

And as she goes on to talk about the abusive messages she’s received, Darby gets visibly emotional, struggling to hold back tears.

“I don’t really know what to say about this,” she says. “To be completely honest it’s just been really overwhelming. People telling me I should die, that they hope my children get cancer.

“I’ve been called almost every name under the sun - words I didn’t even know existed. I just think it’s about time people take some responsibility for what they’re saying over a screen.”

Darby explains that she’s suffered from anxiety for the first time in her life over the past few days, so much so that she went to see her GP about it. “It felt like it had swallowed me up,” she says.

But, Darby ends the video on a positive, defiant note, thanking the people who’ve shown her kindness and defended her “amongst the wave of online abuse.”

“Above all of it, I would just like to add as a final note that although this situation has been tormenting for me, I am glad that it’s helped bring the blogging, vlogging community together in some way.”

And in what can only be seen as admirable, Darby rises above her trolls: “To anyone that has left me a horrible comment, who’s ‘trolled me’ in any way, I wish nothing but the best for you,” she says. “I hope you find happiness.”