After YouTube streamer Valkyrae was harassed by a "delusional" stalker on Twitter, the platform assisted her by blocking any accounts the stalker created or used.
Valkyrae was one of 2020's fastest-growing streamers after she left Twitch for an exclusive streaming contract on YouTube. Recently, she surpassed Twitch streamer Pokimane as the most-watched female streamer by just 0.3 million hours more in watch time. Not only is she the first female gamer and content creator for 100 Thieves, but she has also established herself as a popular variety streamer, similar to Jacksepticeye, playing anything entertaining to watch or highly requested by fans, such as Among Us. She now has almost 3 million subscribers on YouTube.
But this level of popularity, especially for female personalities, often comes with some negative sides in the form of stalkers. Stalkers are all too common to online personalities, and apparently, Valkyrae has been experiencing the brunt of it "for months" now. However, she's been mostly quiet on Twitter about the problem until recently, when Valkyrae shared that she'd be making her account private until the "delusional stalker" stopped in a now-deleted tweet.
According to Valkyrae, the person had created "hundreds" of separate accounts to harass her with unwanted attention that she seemingly had to block each time. The YouTube personality called on Twitter to automatically block any user from an account using the same device as someone who's already been blocked. However, it's possible that this action alone wouldn't stop a determined stalker, as they could likely gain access through another device.
Still, it looks like Twitter worked something out for Valkyrae because she returned to the platform yesterday, saying "thanks Twitter," and a "good morning" to her followers. Valkyrae didn't go into detail on how the situation was handled, but it looks like the stalker issue has been taken care of, at least for the time being.
Unfortunately, obsessive behavior is an issue for many online content creators, especially female ones. In the past, Twitch streamer Jadeyanh was terrorized by a stalker who had found the address to her home. The stalker would attempt to have pizzas delivered, called about a gas leak, and possibly even showed up at the apartment themself. Jadeyanh stopped mentioning the harassment on Twitter after she announced she'd be looking for a new apartment.
Luckily, Valkyrae's problem hasn't come to this length, though this wasn't the first instance of a content creator being doxed online. But hopefully, platforms like Twitter will continue to implement measures like this in future situations.