We grow up in a world where our peers, parents, and people we know always tell us not to believe everything you see on the internet, and boy were they right.

Marina Joyce a nineteen year old fashion and makeup guru on YouTube was allegedly reported “kidnapped” on the day of July 26, 2016 in London, England. The word spread like wildfire throughout YouTube drama channels, Buzzfeed, and even hashtags were created throughout Twitter and Instagram that said #savemarinajoyce.

When Joyce was sixteen she started her YouTube channel in 2013, which was doing very well for her. She was just like any other fashion and makeup guru, full of light and bubbly spirits for what they love to do. Until January of 2016 all of those bubbly spirits washed away when she started dating. Her videos became more dull and her audience believed that they were scripted, and that she was on drugs. Like any other supportive audience would do her fans did research and found little signs of her asking for help or giving signs of her needing help in her videos. They even noticed bruises all over her body. When all signs were added up fingers pointed towards her boyfriend and drugs.

On the morning of July 26, 2016 Joyce tweeted off her account “Meet me Bethnal Green at 6:30am if you would like to join partying with me…” and rumor spread that she was kidnapped. After that tweet was posted another tweet was sent out of a video of Joyce saying “This is a trap don’t come to the meetup.” Tensions started to rise and people began to start worrying more and more. Some even started live streaming them going to the meet up, but when they got there no one was seen.

Just when you think things can’t get any worse Joyce comes online and tweets a link to her livestream to “explain” everything that has been going on. The fishy thing about the live stream was that she never really “explained” anything. At the beginning of her livestream she seems off, and at one point she’s talking about how she was scared about something and then she looks to her left with the most terrified look and stops talking. Throughout the livestream she continuously keeps looking to her left and avoiding all question about what has been going on with her.

Towards the end of her livestream she is about to address all the questions about her, but as soon as she’s about to explain connection is lost and her livestream ends.
Just when things were about to take a rough turn, the morning of July 27, 2016 Joyce does another livestream and she mentions very quickly how the whole thing was a publicity stunt to get more views and followers. Very smart of Joyce to do such a thing, because with this whole “publicity stunt,” she gained 400,000 more subscribers.
So when you see something on the internet don’t believe it until an actual news source confirms it.