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‘We finally did it’: Trans Twitch streamer Keffals shuts down troll forum Kiwi Farms-Radina Koutsafti-Entertainment – Metro
Trans Twitch streamer Keffals has finally won the battle against troll forum Kiwi Farms and is now ‘celebrating their demise.’
Keffals started rallying against Kiwi Farms in August 2022 (pic: YouTube)
Trans Twitch streamer Keffals has finally won the battle against troll forum Kiwi Farms and is now ‘celebrating their demise.’
Canadian trans streamer Clara ‘Keffals’ Sorrenti started streaming video games in 2021 and has since turned to Just Chatting to discuss trans-rights activism and politics.
Since then, her channel has grown to almost 50,000 followers, grabbing the attention of troll forum Kiwi Farms, which has repeatedly tried swatting her.
In August 2022 Keffals even got taken into custody, due to fake claims that she possessed a firearm and had already killed her own mother.
Swatting and doxxing are still very serious problems within the Twitch community, with many top creators suffering from this form of dangerous pranks.
Not long ago, top Twitch streamer xQc had to move house because the police kept showing up to his doorstep, after trolls found out his address.
What is Swatting?
Swatting refers to making hoax calls to the police, or other emergency services, reporting a major incident, with the hope that an armed SWAT team will be sent to an address. For obvious reasons, Swatting is most common in the US but it does happen elsewhere as well and is frequently used against influencers, including during live streams.
In response to the constant harassment, Keffals started a campaign called #DropKiwiFarms, with the goal of getting the site shut down entirely.
She called upon website host Cloudfare to drop Kiwi Forums as a customer and after rallying the support of hundreds of fans she was finally able to get the company to agree.
Keffals shared the good news with her fans both on Twitter and Twitch saying she’s celebrating the site’s demise and that ‘we finally did it.’
During a recent stream, she responded to Kiwi Farms creator Josh Moon’s statement about the site closure, which was shared by fellow activist and content creator Erin Reed.
In the statement, Josh Moon, claimed that the Kiwi Farms shutting down ‘had nothing to do’ with Keffals’ campaign and that’s it’s solely due to a family emergency.
He also revealed that Kiwi Farms has once again been dropped by its shield service provider, leaving the site vulnerable to DDoS cyber attacks that disrupt normal traffic.
Other service providers also voided their deals with Kiwi Farms, meaning that the troll forum isn’t likely to operate ever again.
Keffals says she hopes there will be fewer similar attempts at harassing content creators, now that Kiwi Farms has shut down.
As her campaign went viral and resulted in Kiwi Farms’ demise, Keffals also said it might discourage similar sites from swatting and doxxing in the future.
Just before logging off, Keffals addressed victims of harassment, doxxing, swatting and any other form of online trolling. ‘I hope this brings you some satisfaction,’ she said.
Keffals has also kept a GoFundMe and has managed to raise over $100,000 to help her move house, as well as with her legal fees and overall losses.
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