Olivia R. January 13, 2021
Rachel "Valkyrae" Hofstetter has become one of the biggest content creators on YouTube, even recently beating Imane "Pokimane" Inys as the most-watched female streamer.
With 2.81 million followers on Twitch before making her move to YouTube, Valkyrae is used to getting a lot of attention. But sometimes that attention unfortunately turns toxic. Valkyrae recently made her Twitter account private after a "delusional stalker" created hundreds of accounts as she kept blocking him.
"Unfortunately have to keep my account private until this delusional stalker dies. He's made hundreds of accounts for months," Valkyrae told her followers after making her Twitter private.
The popular streamer called on Twitter to create a blocking option that didn't allow accounts from the same device to keep following someone after having one account blocked. Without that option on the social media platform, Valkyrae was left with no choice but to make her Twitter account private.
Valkyrae keeping Twitter account private after stalking incident
It's unclear how long Valkyrae plans to keep her Twitter account private. With so many ways for people to keep contacting her on Twitter and other public social media platforms, it may not become a public account again in the near future.
Unfortunately, Valkyrae is not alone in this situation. Other popular female streamers, including Sweet Anita, xChocoBars, and BrookeAB, have also opened up about being stalked. The stalking even led Ashley "BrookeAB" Bond to step away from content creation out of fear for her safety after an anonymous abuser kept telling her that they planned to harm her.
Even though BrookeAB has reportedly been working on a program to help other female gamers and streamers deal with stalkers, it's sometime feels unclear for victims how this issue can best be handled. For now, Valkyrae is choosing to lower the ease of access to her personal accounts.