22-year-old Troye Sivan is certainly no stranger to the internet. Like most people of his age group (Millennial? Gen Z? Does anyone actually know the cutoff?), he is super plugged-in and so are his fans. In fact, he even got his start by making videos on YouTube. So he knew that, at one point or another, he was going to face the seemingly inevitable phenomenon of backlash for something small and off-hand posted about or by him on the internet.

Billboard reports that a moment in which Sivan caught the ire of his fans came earlier this year, when “a series of photos were released, seemingly showing Sivan accepting a bouquet of flowers from a fan and subsequently throwing them in the garbage. Fans were quick to say that Sivan’s actions were rude and dismissive.”

However, Sivan cleared up the situation in a recent interview with GQ Australia. As can happen when people speculate on the internet, the incident was blown out of proportion and was not what it seemed. “Three days had gone by, but the way it was framed was that I was given them and then immediately threw them away,” he said. “People got upset about that.”

Being a digital native, Sivan knew that something like this was bound to happen and that all that really matters is how you deal with it. “I’ve come to terms with that already,” he said. “We share so much and people are only human. The important thing is how you respond to those situations and how you grow and learn from them.”

And there’s something to be said for boundaries and privacy, as well. In this age of instant information, people want to know everything about their favorite musicians, actors, celebrities, you name it. But it’s important to remember that those we admire are people too! Sivan, for instance, rarely posts about his relationship with model Jacob Bixenman, because while he likes to share his life with his fans, some things are better left off the web.