One of YouTube’s highest profile creators has been at the center of a firestorm the past week, Alia “SSSniperwolf” Shelesh.
The YouTuber with 34.1 million followers has been in a feud with fellow creator Jacksfilms, as he’s frequently criticized her work for “stealing” content from other video-makers to fuel her own channel adding little to the work.
YouTube spats are nothing new, but it escalated when SSSniperwolf said that she knew where he lived and could “visit him,” subsequently posting a video to her Instagram filmed outside his house, an act Jacksfilms called “creepy, gross and violating.”
In the wake of this, YouTube was hammered with creators and fans saying that SSSniperwolf should be either significantly punished or removed from the platform altogether, but on Friday, YouTube posted a reply to Jacksfilms explaining her sentence, which was simply a temporary monetization suspension of indeterminate length:
There was much controversy about the light tough of the punishment, deemed to be little more than a slap on the wrist, when lower profile creators have had their channels demonetized for months or even banned for far less, including small offenses like a few accidental seconds of copyrighted footage. There is the accusation here that YouTube is giving SSSniperwolf a pass on much, much more troubling behavior, actual doxxing through filming outside someone’s house, revealing where they live.
The second issue that YouTube says that “the behavior on both sides isn’t what we want on YT.” Again, the issue does not seem both-sided. Jacksfilms called SSSniperwolf out for a long time for a type of content he viewed as theft. SSSniperwolf then doxxed him. YouTube giving these equal weight is seen as problematic.
SSSniperwolf actually ended up thanking YouTube for her punishment in her apology message to Jacksfilms and her audience, saying they were “holding her accountable.”
The entire affair has appeared to creators and fans to reinforce a “tiered” system at YouTube where at times, a creator can be so big they escape more severe consequences that might have obliterated another channel. Perhaps this is a metaphor for uh, life, but the situation has probably caused more ire at YouTube at this point than SSSniperwolf herself, who had her fair share of detractors before this.
We’ll see what happened from here, if Jacksfilms and SSSniperwolf will end the feud, or if SSSniperwolf changes the type of content she creates. I’ve asked her for comment, and will update if I hear back. For now, neither her nor YouTube are coming out of this unscathed.
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