Some fans were alarmed after a Twitter hashtag implying YouTuber Gabbie Hanna had passed away picked up traction, but it appears to have just been started as a ‘joke.’
Gabbie Hanna rose to popularity on short-form video app Vine under the name ‘The Gabbie Show,’ and after it shut down her primary platform became YouTube, where she now has over 5.6 million subscribers.
The creator has released several songs, as music is a big focus of her career, but she has also released two poetry books.
However, particularly over the past year, Gabbie has become the subject of a great deal of controversy online, especially on TikTok, with people making memes out of many of her videos.
Gabbie’s fans were confused when the hashtag #RIPGabbieHanna started gaining traction on May 31, wondering if something really could have happened to the social media star.
However, it quickly became apparent that the star hadn’t actually passed away, with the hashtag full of memes referencing some of her most viral videos, or using pictures of other celebrities instead of her to draw comparisons between them.
https://twitter.com/sheIbystoni/status/1399145969476902921
https://twitter.com/zuleuphoria/status/1399149830874800132
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Gabbie hanna logging in to write her thinkpiece on some random kpop stans deciding to do a #RIPGabbieHanna out of boredom https://t.co/vrbxw9bGNW
— erin (@ireneslawyer) May 30, 2021
https://twitter.com/tilbatkamahe/status/1399171474414505986
It seems as though Gabbie is very much alive, having been active on social media throughout when these tweets were being posted.
But the YouTuber hasn’t responded to the hashtag about her, and it’s not clear whether she intends to.
Under a thread by commentary YouTuber Def Noodles, many disagreed with the hoax hashtag, saying “this is not okay” and calling it “gross.”
Gabbie isn’t the only creator that’s had similar hashtags and death rumors circulated about her. Minecraft YouTuber Dream faced a similar situation back in January when #RIPDream went viral on Twitter.