Although Mati Marroni is currently recognized on a global scale, the popular model first entered the social media realm and grew to online stardom at just 16 years old. Now at the age of 18, the model and influencer has experienced both the positive and negative outcomes of having such a massive following online. With almost 400,000 followers on Instagram alone, Marroni has gained and experienced opportunities she once never thought possible at such a young age. She often speaks about the places she’s been able to travel, and the people she’s had the opportunity of meeting along her journey to social media fame.
As amazing as Marroni’s experiences have been thus far, being in the limelight can often include some potential downsides. Work perks and profits aside, Mati has had to deal with a variety of disturbances over the course of the past two years. The primary issue she has come across is “catfishing”, which refers to an instance where someone uses stolen photos and/or names to create a false identity online. Many people around the world, especially young, up-and-coming influencers, have fallen victim to this modern day identity theft. Mati herself has experienced this first hand several times; however, the extent to which she has been catfished has never been seen before.
Mati first began noticing mysterious accounts appearing online almost two years ago when she was just 17. She discovered that these random accounts were using both her name and her photos, and the most concerning part is that they were quickly growing a following of their own. A few of the phony “Mati Marroni” accounts even reached upwards of 2 million followers and are being followed by other influencers and even a number of celebrities. Although most social media stars experience catfishing at some point, none have ever faced multiple accounts with over 1 million followers each. The significant size difference between Mati’s real account and the fake accounts has caused a great deal of problems when trying to prove her authenticity on her social media platforms.
To make matters even worse, Mati’s authentic Instagram account has been disabled on multiple occasions for no reason whatsoever, and her content is often removed despite the lack of guideline violations. With all of this adding up together, Mati was ready to give up on social media all together. She did her best to ignore these fake catfish accounts and not let them get to her, but eventually she realized it was necessary to seek help, as she realized the potential for the impersonators to damage her reputation with such a large influence. Mati hired a lawyer and legal team to try and eliminate these Instagram accounts and gain her online identity back. While the legal team did what they could, it didn’t actually help much in the end because of how anonymous the impersonators had kept their information.
Catfishing has become an increasingly common crime in today’s digital-focused world, and Mati has found this especially difficult this past year during quarantine. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mati (and the rest of the world) have spent a great deal of time cooped up at home with nothing much to do but spend time on her phone. She felt like there was no escaping from watching the impersonators steal her name and photos for their own gain, as well as to cause her pain. When she did go out in public, random people would often approach her asking if the monstrous accounts belonged to her.
While this has been an ongoing challenge for Mati since the beginning of her online fame, she is not letting it stop her from pursuing her career goals and dreams. She has big plans for the near future, and she hopes that she will be able to put these plans into effect as the world begins to open again in 2021. While her growing success continues to rapidly expand, she strongly desires to utilize her platform to make the world a better place- both online and offline.
“Aside from my modeling work, I plan to find ways in which I can give back to people in need all around the world,” says Mati. “I really want to help influence change in the way women are treated in many areas of the world, and I truly believe that I can make a difference when it comes to women’s rights in countries where they have none,” Marroni boldly stated.
Despite all of this negativity that Mati experiences on a daily basis, she has still managed to keep a positive attitude and stay on track with her goals. While she still continues to battle her impersonators online, she is hopeful that her freedom and identity will soon be restored. We would like to congratulate Mati Marroni on all of her success thus far, and we can’t wait to see what she does in 2021.
We encourage our readers to keep up with Mati Marroni on her Instagram.
