Ludwig ‘Ludwig’ Ahgren explained why it’s “terrifying” to be a Twitch star, referring to incidents where Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel and Kaitlyn ‘Amouranth’ Siragusa had people show up at their homes.
Twitch stars have a lot of perks in life. Not only do they get paid to do the things they love, but they also get to enjoy the fruit of their labor.
However, it isn’t always sunshine and rainbows – especially when personal information like their house address gets leaked online.
Doxxing is a serious crime that puts streamers are at risk of being swatted and having trespassers show up to their homes. One instance is bad enough. But when it happens multiple times, they’re left with no choice but to change homes.
Ludwig spoke about the issue on stream, explaining how it’s “terrifying” for streamers not to feel safe living in their own homes and highlighting some of the drastic measures they’ve taken to avoid their addresses being leaked.
The first incident he referred to was the arson attack on Amouranth’s home. He explained that she used to get “swatted all the time” but found a way to avoid it. Then, someone took it to the “next level” by trying to burn down her house.
Next, he referred to a separate incident where xQc was forced to leave his home due to daily swattings. “xQc left his home because he was getting a bunch of weird people trying to f**k with him in real life and go to his house,” he said.
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Finally, he mentioned a conversation he had with an unnamed streamer who changed their name to buy a house without getting doxxed. “They said [it was] the one thing that they knew to do to stop them from getting doxxed,” he said.
“That’s crazy. The steps you have to take to [avoid getting doxxed]. That’s insane. It’s terrifying that that’s how far you have to go because you don’t feel safe living in your own home.” And he believes it’s worse for female streamers.
Ludwig’s comments are a stark reminder of the hardships streamers face when it comes to the safety of their homes; hopefully, in time, there will be better measures in place to protect them from being doxxed and a harsher penalty for those who do it.
But until that happens, they’ll keep needing to take matters into their own hands, even if it means changing houses regularly — as crazy as that sounds.