Marina Joyce is a British, 19-year-old fashion and beauty vlogger who posts near-weekly videos on YouTube on topics that range from makeup tutorials to dating, to vegan diets, to "kawaii" outfits and relatable school videos. If it seems like I know an awful lot about Marina and her content, that's because five nights ago at around 1:30 a.m., I watched all of her YouTube videos from the past three months. Funnily enough, until five days ago, I knew absolutely nothing about Marina and had never even heard of her. But that's before everyone with a Twitter account decided to become private investigators.
The #savemarinajoyce hashtag was trending worldwide earlier this week because Marina fans everywhere — and also just random people on the Internet, like myself — were made aware that Marina was in grave danger. Evidence had been collected from her most recent YouTube videos that pointed towards some kind of abuse or even kidnapping; Marina looked distant, sometimes even frightened, she looked away from the camera too often, some people thought they could see the reflection of a man in her eyes, some people thought she was blinking "SOS" in Morse code (she wasn't, I checked), and some even thought she was using sign language to tell people to not go to a certain meet-up she had arranged via Twitter. Some of those people failed to realize that American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) are two very different things.
Basically, it was a frenzy. I read through the entire #savemarinajoyce tag as the action was unfolding five nights ago, and believe me, it was more than out of hand. I was a virtual witness to the complete faith that hundreds and thousands of people had that Marina was being held hostage in her own home. And I'll admit — I actually bought it. I mean, she did look pretty distressed. And the power of mass hysteria is pretty hard to resist. And there was just so much evidence being found — someone said the two blue lines Marina had drawn on her face were secretly a cry for help from a victim of domestic abuse, her Tweets were secretly spelling out "help" in capital letters, the heart she made with her hands at the end of her videos was secretly a cry for help, because someone had asked her to draw a heart on herself if she needed assistance. In the original YouTube video that sparked the outcry, people claimed they could hear Marina say "help me" around the 0:12 mark, and the way that she's directed to stand seems to cause distress. Perhaps the most alarming part of the whole situation were the bruises that can be seen on the back of Marina's arms; this honestly is a reasonable thing to be concerned about. All in all, the amount of "evidence" being presented was basically overwhelming — and it was enough to get the police involved.
The local police in Marina's area Tweeted on July 26 at 10:34 p.m. that the YouTube star was "safe and well" after officers checked on her and her family at their home. But to the majority of those in the #savemarinajoyce tag, this wasn't convincing enough, mostly because the Tweet came from an unverified account. The conspiracy continued until people were beginning to believe that ISIS was actually behind the proposed kidnapping. Personally, that was a little too far-fetched. Some claimed that Marina was clearly addicted to drugs — specifically, speed. Theories continued until people on Twitter were diagnosing Marina with schizophrenia, based on her YouTube videos alone and from no personal knowledge of her life at all. At that point, I feel like the point that the Washington Post and Forbes made on the Marina Joyce phenomenon is applicable — the parasocial interaction between YouTubers and their fans is perhaps stronger than any other social or mass media outlet out there. The illusion of intimacy between stars and their fans is a common thing, but with Marina Joyce, it's clear to see that it can be taken to a whole new level.
Several of Marina's friends said they were harassed by fans who accused them of lying about the abuse and covering up the kidnapping. Marina did two live streams the day after the #savemarinajoyce hashtag caused such a stir, hoping to clear up the situation. One of the live streams was in the style of an interview with fellow YouTuber Phillip DeFranco, and Marina's mother was present in the other YouNow live stream.
Social media has now turned on its heels and begun to crucify Marina for the unforeseen fallout of the #savemarinajoyce situation. Many people believe the alleged abuse and kidnapping was a publicity stunt from the start, but both Marina and her mother Cheryl have explained that that's not the case.
"We don't understand what has happened. Everyone is coming up with strange conspiracy theories about ISIS and being kidnapped. It's gone over the top. It's not a publicity stunt. And she is not being held by ISIS," Cheryl told "The Sun" in an interview on July 28. And really, even if anything in Marina's videos was staged, the sheer amount of resulting hysteria could not have been predicted by anyone. I highly doubt she meant to cause such a widespread and fearful reaction, even if any parts of her behavior were planned in advance.
Personally, even though the widespread fear for Marina's safety was a little ridiculous in retrospect, it's also pretty reassuring. What if she actually was being harmed or had been kidnapped? Her fans would have helped her out of the situation, clearly very quickly. There are worse things for people to get worked up over, and another person's safety is generally a good thing to care about.
