YouTube star-turned-boxer KSI is part of a content group known as the Sidemen, who often get together for an ongoing series of “IRL Tinder” videos — but some fans are taking their opinion of these particular uploads too far.
The Sidemen are known for their hilarious antics and over-the-top content, but some of their most popular videos take the dating app experience to the “real world” — in a manner of speaking.
The Sidemen have uploaded several “IRL Tinder” videos, where the group will attempt to woo a lineup of women with cheesy jokes and one-liners, leaving the girls to choose for themselves which Sidemen member they’re ultimately “interested in.”
While the entire premise of the series is for “jokes only,” as explained in the videos’ disclaimers, some fans of the group were not happy with a few of the female contestants who appeared in the Sidemen’s latest upload.
In fact, a slew of fans actually went to one woman’s personal social media profiles to harass her, causing her to purportedly turn off her comments and make her accounts private as a way to combat the constant criticism.
After learning of this, KSI begged the fans responsible to call off their harassment, as told in a February 26 YouTube video.
“Leave her alone, guys,” the YouTuber said. “This is out of order, man. I don’t know if she’ll ever put up comments again, but if she does, I want you to just give her love, man. Come on, man! It’s a video, alright? It’s done! It’s jokes!”
“Whoever bullied her, you’re out of line, fam,” he continued. “I’m not okay with that.”
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KSI isn’t the only Sidemen member to have spoken out about the bullying, either; Joshua ‘Zerkaa’ Bradley also mentioned the issue during a recent video, similarly asking fans to put a stop to the criticism.
“If any of you out there take that outside of the video realm — if you go to her profile — and you take any of those lines, and you use it against them, if you send them any abuse or hate… don’t do it! They’re there to help make content better.”
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Thus far, it seems like much of the Sidemen fanbase is in agreement with this sentiment, and are actively decrying those in the fandom who are harassing the women in question.