A Twitch streamer says an obsessive fan wrote a 246-page blog about her. It highlights the problem women face online.
- Twitch streamer Nico opened up about an obsessive fan on Twitter.
- In a TwitLonger she said the man had written a 246-page blog about her.
- She urged her fans not to fall in love with streamers because of the stress it causes.
Twitch streamer Nico posted an emotional plea to her followers on February 4. She shared it to her Twitter with the title "Don't fall in love with a streamer. This is scary."
Her story highlights a wider problem women face when they become prominent online figures, in that fans may become obsessive, and law enforcement is not always able to help them when those obsessions turn dangerous. Some streamers who have encountered over-the-top behavior from fans have said it can evolve into online stalking, in-person altercations, and threats of violence or death.
Nico, who has over 80,000 followers who watch her Animal Crossing content, begged her fans not to follow her obsessive fan's behavior. She said it all started when the person, who she didn't name, decided she had been leading him on, and he'd developed feelings for her.
This person had been a community member on her Discord server - a chat site which several influencers use to interact with their fans - and had "always seemed like a chill dude," she said. Recently, though, she said there had been "outbursts, subtweets, and what seemed to be a general misunderstanding of a lot of things."
The conversations turned uncomfortable, she said, as this person "took anything I said in any general context and made it about him."
Nico says the fan became obsessed with her every move
Nico said she then found out about a "deeply delusional" blog this fan had written about her, which she says was 246 pages long. She said he would try to "connect the dots" by imagining her clothing choices or things she said in streams were sending him messages in some way. His conclusion was that they were officially dating, she said.
"He brings up my friends MANY times throughout the posts," Nico wrote. "It's mindblowing to even have them be involved. He has a post about if one of my friends is mad at him. He has another post wondering if one has ever thought about dating him because she talks about being single a lot. He even makes a post directly naming a friend saying that he wants to date her."
The overall theme of the blog is that she was this person's girlfriend, Nico said, and when she didn't respond to his advances he would get aggressive and call her "toxic." For example, she says he complained about their "communication" and got angry when he couldn't get in contact with her when she was off-stream, or the fact they have different interests and hobbies.
"I'm not here to cater you," Nico wrote. I am here to be my own person. The amount of anger into obsession into love is so deeply concerning."
This person was overly interested in her private life, Nico said, to the extent they would try and work out who she was dating, and get enraged if they thought she was going out to the movies with someone else.
"I can't even get myself to finish reading the blog," she said. "It just spirals out of control."
Insider has reached out to Nico for comment.
Female Twitch streamers face alarming amounts of harassment
Nico's experience highlights a problem female streamers have to deal with every day. Both men and women have to deal with obsessive fans, but women are particularly affected on the internet. Many have stories of being harassed by violent stalkers who threaten to hurt or even kill them.
"I often think about how I will prob die by the hands of my stalker and no one can do anything about it until it really happens," tweeted streamer xChocoBars in August, 2020. "I know it's heavy to talk about but if it does happen I hope my death will mean something and help protect other creators from similar situations."
Three streamers spoke to Insider last year about what they went through - or are still going through - with fans who they say became obsessive and dangerous. For example, one streamer known as Sweet Anita said she has had a stalker for many months who has waited outside her house, followed her home, and threatened to kill her, her mother, and her pets.
Another, who goes by LadyDevann, said her stalker would send her hundreds of messages a day and constantly tell her he was coming to her house. One streamer who wanted to remain anonymous said her stalker would periodically send her Google maps screenshots of her location, to prove he knew where she was.
"It was very, very, very disruptive to my life and very, very, very disruptive to my mental health," she said. "I had bars on my doors. I had a door jammer just in case somebody broke in. I slept on my couch so I could watch the door."
The streamers told Insider that a major concern is that online harassment and doxxing - revealing someone's personal and identifying information online without their consent - won't be investigated sufficiently by law enforcement because it's often hard to understand the full severity of online harassment.
Twitch said that appropriate measures, from permanent bans to escalation to law enforcement, are taken when any incident of harassment occurs on the platform. However, it is unable to do anything about off-platform behavior, and that is the responsibility of the police forces in the streamers' home towns.
Sweet Anita told Insider that no police officer she had dealt with understood her job or understood why she was so afraid. Their advice was to stop streaming, she said, "but the problem isn't with my job - the problem is that they don't do theirs."
"If I die because of this, will anything change? Would it even be enough if I did die?" she said. "Every day I wake up wondering if it's my last."