Twitch VTuber Sinder found herself at the center of a harassment campaign on Thursday. Her crime? Daring to have fun and try new things.
Following in the footsteps of fellow VTuber Akuma Nihmune and her cover of “CPR”, Sinder decided that she needed to put her own spin on the song.
Devising a metal cover of the song, Sinder shared her version of “CPR” on Twitter on Thursday, Feb. 16. Reaching over 17 million impressions, the post would go on to become a lightning rod for harassment from a community outside of her own.
“My Tweet was pushed to a whole audience of people who decided to comment and quote retweet my post with insults, threats, and really discouraging things. To be honest, at first, I thought it was a bunch of bots because a lot of the replies were cookie-cutter insults and they were really unoriginal,” the VTuber said.
“After we hit 10,000 replies filled with hate, I started to realize it wasn’t bots. It was pretty clear that it was a whole community of ‘antis’ that were trying to put down content creators.”
Despite feeling nervous to stream following the incident, Sinder went live on Twitch with the message “I love my community. Let’s have more fun together.” Knowing that her fans were there to support her, the streamer was not shy about addressing the ongoing harassment.
“Some of them started insulting the work of my friends who helped me make the cover. It came to the point where it was no longer about attacking me, but attacking anybody involved in what I was doing, anyone who was supporting me [and] standing up for me,” she told her audience.
“It got so bad. I had to hold all comments on my YouTube channel for review. That’s where I got most of the threats. These people were also insulting my community who had comments on the video. And they even started replying to you guys with more comments and threats, and harassing you for supporting me.”
Like many VTubers, all Sinder wanted to do was find new ways to express herself.
“I have never made music before. I’m not a singer. I don’t rap. I haven’t even sung in front of anybody else, not even my family. The first time is when we did the karaoke stream. So I’m still very new to all this,” the streamer explained.
“CPR is a rap song. I don’t listen to a lot of rap music, but I decided to put my own spin on it anyway. Because why not? I thought it would be fun. I really like the metal genre, so I wanted to mash them up and make something different and unique. People have been really trying to gatekeep metal music.”
Metal vocalist and fellow VTuber Futakuchi Mana stepped into the fray after haters used her work to gatekeep Sinder out of making music.
“Please don’t use my work to bring anyone down and gate keep metal. I appreciate that you like my work but you can do that without pitting me against other vtubers. I want more people to enjoy doing metal covers too!” Mana wrote.
“Metal is for everyone and if someone wants to take a crack at doing metal covers just let them have fun!”
Former Cloud9 VTuber Vienna was more than happy to walk into the line of fire for her Hellhound friend. The streamer did not hesitate in calling out the hate brigade for what it was, “cringe.”
“We welcome people trying new shit, music, art, writing etc. Vtubing is a creative space first and foremost and we’ll always support those endeavors,” the cosmic VTuber wrote. “Sinder is the sweetest person and a 10/10 babe. Take your misery somewhere else.”
Vienna was far from the only one to share that sentiment. Apex Legends pro turned VTuber rpr could not help but be baffled by the kinds of people who would join a hate mob.
“How do people on this app have the energy to be so mad and bitter constantly, let people live their lives, grow up, close your eyes, exit the window, do anything just shut up please, spare us your bullshit,” he wrote.
Despite the sheer amount of negativity she faced, Sinder took the situation in stride. When asked whether this would deter her from making any music in the future, she replied: “Hell no. Boost my views again. Thanks for all the engagement.”
