Live by social media, die by social media


A few days ago, I posted about a social media celebrity named Alissa Violet who claimed that she and her boyfriend, supposedly another online celebrity named Ricky “FaZe” Banks, were assaulted and ejected by the security personnel at a Cleveland bar called Barley House over the Thanksgiving weekend. They both posted their accounts, she showing a bleeding lip and a bruise over her eye, and their fans around the nation were up in arms and vowed to take revenge on Barley House, its security personnel, and any other bar patrons whom they felt had wronged their idols. These fans even threatened to come to Cleveland to carry out their threats but it seemed like they limited their attacks to bad Yelp reviews for Barley House and harassing and threatening online and by phone any person whom they could identify.

At one point the Barley House management had had enough of being targeted for abuse and mounted a counter-attack. They rounded up all their security video footage and compiled it to provide a point-by-point rebuttal of all the charges, showing that Violet and Banks were not assaulted by security, that they did not have any injuries at the time they were on the street outside after being ejected, that Violet instigated a confrontation with another patron after security had left the scene, and that Banks was aggressive during the whole encounter. They said that you could even see Violet’s mother thanking the security personnel for their handling of the matter.

Here’s the Barley House video. It is oddly gripping because of its prosecutorial style. Not being someone who goes to bars, I was impressed by the number of security cameras and security personnel they have. I guess they are necessary because bars must be having to deal with a lot of fights by drunk and unruly people.

So will this settle things? I doubt it. There seems to be nothing more angry than a social media celebrity scorned. I expect to see another round of dueling videos.

Comments

  1. Matt G says

    Why do I have the feeling that Violet’s fans don’t care about the counter-evidence? We live in trump’s world now where (un)righteous rage is all that matters. Where else can liars call honest people liars and win? A lie gets half way around the world before the truth gets its boots on….

  2. lanir says

    Huh. This reminds me of a particular brand of social dynamics I saw in highschool. It was pretty disgusting.

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