Elle Darby White Moose Café Exposure Controversy

Overview

Elle Darby White Moose Café Exposure Controversy, also known as "#BloggerGate," refers to a feud between social media influencer Elle Darby and the White Moose Café hotel, following Darby's request to stay for free in exchange for publicity on her social channels. After White Moose Café posted her request on Facebook, the controversy went viral and the two parties exchanged in a back-and-forth on various social media networks.

Background

On January 16th, 2018, the owner of the White Moose Café in Dublin, Paul Stenson posted an email from a social media influencer with the identity of the sender redacted on Facebook.^[1] In the message, they requested a free stay at the White Moose Café in exachange for free publicity on their social channels. Stenson declined the request and added:

"If I let you stay here in return for a feature in your video, who is going to pay the staff who look after you? Who is going to pay the housekeepers who clean your room? The waiters who serve you breakfast? The receptionist who checks you in? Who is going to pay for the light and heat you use during your stay? The laundering of your bed sheets? The water rates? Maybe I should tell my staff they will be featured in your video in lieu of receiving payment for work carried out while you’re in residence?"

The post (shown below) received more than 35,000 reactions, 4,400 shares and 5,200 comments in one week.

Development

That day, Elle Darby responded to the post on YouTube. ^[2] Entitled "i was exposed (SO embarassing), the video allows Darby to give her side of the story, explaining how her business in social media works. The video (shown below) received more than 2.2 million views in one week.

The following day, The White Moose Café's Paul Stenson responded to her video by banning all bloggers from the business. The Facebook^[3] post said, "The sense of entitlement is just too strong in the blogging community and the nastiness, hissy fits and general hate displayed after one of your members was not granted her request for a freebie is giving your whole industry a bad name. I never thought we would be inundated with negative reviews for the simple reason that somebody was required to pay for goods received or services rendered." Within one week, the post (shown below, left) received more than 46,000 reactions, 4,200 comments and 1,500 shares.

On January 22nd, the White Moose Café continued to mock Darby by posting pictures of new merch that referenced the issue on Facebook (shown below, right). The shirts, which say "I got exposed by White Moose" and "I demanded freebies at the White Moose Cafe, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt," received more than 9,800 reactions, 120 shares and 570 comments in two days.

The following day, Darby published another video called "my side of the story / moving on."^[4] In the video, she explains that the original Facebook post allowed people to see her name if the viewer turns the screen brightness up. She also says that she has received "death threats and cancer wishes" since the controversy started. The video (shown below) received more than 97,000 views in 24 hours.

#BloggerGate

Online, the controversy was discussed using the hashtag "bloggergate." People using the tag expressed their opinions on the feud. On January 19th, Twitter ^[9] user @D_BagmanMUFC tweeted, "My fave bit of the whole #bloggergate shite though has to be @elledarby saying people over 30 'don't understand social media'. At 22 years old she was 11 when Twitter started. 9 when Facebook did. And had all the life experience 10 years brings when YouTube was founded."

Twitter^[10] user @Steves_Story wrote, "Whatever you think about the #elledarby and #whitemoosecafe drama, people need to stop acting like she's a child being attacked by "grown men"…she is 22 for fuck sake, a GROWN WOMAN. If she is going to put herself out there she needs to take the good with the bad #bloggergate."

Twitter^[11] user @KimAtLiah tweeted, "I wish jerks like Paul understood exactly how many hours bloggers put into their blogs – how much time they spend cultivating relationships – and that anyone who stays in this business has to LOVE what they do. #bloggergate"

Media Coverage

Several media outlets covered the controversy, including Business Insider,^[5] The Daily Dot,^[6] The Daily Mail,^[7] Quartz^[8] and more.

Search Interest

External References