100 Thieves member and streamer Rachel ‘Valkyrae’ Hofstetter was forced to turn her Twitter account private, due to what she calls a “delusional stalker,” who has made hundreds of accounts to evade her blocks.
A hugely successful 2020 has seen Valkyrae become the most-watched female streamer in the world, overtaking Twitch’s number one, Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys.
Valkyrae, previously also a Twitch streamer, moved to YouTube exclusively, and it’s a switch that has certainly paid off. Rising to streaming superstardom with the popularity of Among Us, she now boasts almost 3 million subscribers.
However, one downside to this enormous success is the unwanted attention – specifically a problem for female content creators, Valkyrae is the target of a stalker.
Dexerto has previously covered some of the stories from other prominent female streamers, including Sweet_Anita and xChocoBars, who called on more police action to be taken against stalkers.
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Valkyrae’s 100 Thieves compatriot BrookeAB has also been the victim of stalking, forcing her to take months away from streaming, and social media generally.
Valkyrae’s Twitter goes private
On January 13, Valkyrae explained why she had suddenly made her Twitter account, with over 1.6 million followers, private. “Unfortunately have to keep my account private until this delusional stalker dies. He’s made hundreds of accounts for months.”
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Because the stalker can simply make a new account every time they are blocked, Valkyrae has no option to prevent them from following her other than stopping all new followers totally.
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Valkyrae also called on Twitter to implement a feature whereby all accounts on the same device are blocked, when an account is blocked. However, even this wouldn’t be able to stop a determined stalker from simply gaining access through another device.
Luckily, it seems the issue was handled by Twitter shortly thereafter, as evidenced by a Tweet Rae posted nearly nine hours later. In the post, Rae thanked Twitter and wished her followers good morning from her now non-private account, hinting that her stalker has been effectively dealt with.
hehehehehehehehehe thanks Twitter
Goodmorning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
— RAE (@Valkyrae) January 13, 2021
Social media is crucial for any content creator, and Rae not being able to grow her following and interact with new fans was far from ideal. As she is far from the only creator to deal with this problem, it’s hopeful that such measures can be implemented more regularly in the future, considering Twitter’s latest action against Rae’s stalker.