Popular YouTuber and makeup guru James Charles is no stranger to internet trolls, thanks to his widespread fame – but one troll crossed the line in a big way.
Content creator Jovan Hill uploaded a fake screenshot of an alleged conversation with Charles over Instagram, which showed a censored message from the YouTuber that appeared to say a racial slur.
Charles quickly shot back at Hill with a scathing threat after the Tweet went live, claiming that he would contact his lawyer over the screenshot should Hill fail to delete it.
Hill shot back at Charles’s threat in kind, writing in a now-deleted Tweet, “Let’s do it baby, I know the law.”
While Hill’s Twitter account has since been deactivated amidst the scandal, Charles continued to speak out on the faked message with a series of cautioning posts.
It’s scary to me that there are actual people on twitter who crave attention so badly that they make fake screenshots to try and ruin other’s careers and lives… it’s not funny
— James Charles (@jamescharles) March 13, 2019
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“It’s scary to me that there are actual people on twitter who crave attention so badly that they make fake screenshots to try and ruin other’s careers and lives,” he wrote of the debacle. “It’s not funny.”
However, some fans felt that Hill’s Tweet was just a joke – to which Charles had a serious response.
Getting messages death threats and emails questioning one’s character over a fake screenshot is not a joke
— James Charles (@jamescharles) March 13, 2019
“Getting messages death threats and emails questioning one’s character over a fake screenshot is not a joke,” Charles wrote of the issue after one fan told him to “take a joke.”
James Charles is one of YouTube’s most popular makeup personalities, reaching over 15 million subscribers in early March and amassing over 14 million followers on Instagram.