Everyone familiar with Twitch will know that the platform plays host to more than its fair share of trolls and abusers. Usually, this is perpetuated by singular people or groups of friends with a little too much time on their hands. But streamer and YouTuber WEEST has recently experienced just how overwhelming and harmful this kind of behavior can potentially be.
A Fortnite YouTuber whose channel is called MaximilianMus has been inciting his audience to go into popular Twitch streamers’ channels and harass them, often using homophobic and trans slurs notwithstanding, while claiming that they are part of WEEST’s community. This was in hopes that the rival content creator would get reported and banned off the platform.
As WEEST explains in a series of tweets aimed at clearing his name and exposing Maximilian and the community he has largely built around his Discord server, such a ban would mean a big blow to WEEST’s personal income, as well as to his reputation in the community. Some of the personalities that have been targeted in these attacks include BluesDank and Alinity, as well as some personal friends of WEEST.
This is what the Twitch Community Guidelines say about Impersonation: “Content or activity meant to impersonate an individual or organization is prohibited. Any attempts to misrepresent yourself as a member of Twitch representatives is a zero-tolerance violation and will result in indefinite suspension.”
However, as Maximilian’s main streaming avenue is YouTube, it is unlikely that he will face any consequences there, bar perhaps being publicly exposed. This exposure has already led to multiple Discord reports against his server.
When the Twitter thread was posted to the LivestreamFail subreddit. multiple people began to bring up other condemnable things Maximilian and his community have been responsible for. These included harassing WEEST’s girlfriend after her father had passed away and bullying vulnerable people online into humiliating themselves.
WEEST’s tweets got nearly twenty thousand likes, and his statement has been spread and addressed by multiple popular content creators. Hopefully this means that he will be able to retain his channel and audience, and not have to give into the threatening and abusive situation that he has become a target for.
Any past interactions between the two content creators is unknown and it’s possible there could be reason for this degree of animosity, however this is not the first time Maximilian has been accused of such behavior, which could mean that he will soon be held accountable.
