Is paying for private security just another cost of being a female streamer?

It’s not up for debate: Female content creators deal with more egregious behavior online than male creators. Women have spoken up about having to combat everything from lewd remarks in stream chat to death threats and deepfakes.

And sometimes, this behavior crosses over from online to IRL.

On March 2, just before midnight, Twitch/Kick streamer Amouranth posted a concerning tweet:

She would later give harrowing details. She woke up to three men standing over her. They pulled her out of bed, beat her, and held her at gunpoint, trying to get her to hand over her cryptocurrency assets. Thankfully she was able to lead them across the house to her husband, who had seen her tweets and was waiting with a firearm to scare them off. Both she and her husband were unharmed, and Houston police are investigating.

Less than 24 hours later, Emiru, Cinna, and Valkyrae were accosted by a male “fan” at the Santa Monica Pier in California. They were hosting an IRL stream as part of their “sisathon” collab marathon, and the man had tracked their location using the live broadcast. When he found them, he got down on one knee and proposed to them, then asked one for her phone number. After she refused, he lunged at them, threatening to kill them.

The three streamers called for pier security while their cameraperson and assistant got between them and the man.

While the perpetrators of these incidents were unrelated, the incidents’ close proximity and the fact that they both involved female streamers has sparked discussions about the lengths well-known women have to go to protect themselves.

Streamer Pokimane just recently told Colin and Samir that she spends over five figures a month on security, including paying for services that protect her from doxxing, deepfakes and stalking.

“I literally have people that I have to pay monthly to essentially scour and see whether my address is online anywhere and then take it down,” she told them. “I wish that wasn’t the case.”

She added that she’s also altered the appearance of her streaming and living spaces so it’s more difficult to tell where she lives from her broadcasts. We here at Tubefilter have heard from several other female streamers who have done the same thing after being doxxed or receiving threats of stalking.

Meanwhile, QTCinderella responded to Amouranth, Emiru, Cinna, and Valkyrae’s incidents by tweeting about the private security company she hires to protect her at all public events. (Also worth noting she and her partner, fellow streamer Ludwig, have been targeted by swatters multiple times.)

Obviously we’re not saying male content creators have zero need for security, or that they never face threats of their own. More than a few male content creators have been swatted, and some have also had their homes broken into. But Emiru, Cinna, and Valkyrae’s incident especially highlights how female content creators are at risk of stalking from “fans” who have tripped into some kind of parasocial reality and think if they just have one chance to get face-to-face with a female creator, she’ll agree to date them.

And, as you saw from the perpetrator’s reaction in that incident, things can get dangerous fast if the creator says no.

So what can female creators do? Unfortunately, law enforcement still doesn’t make significant effort to track down and stop digital threats, so the expensive blueprint Pokimane laid out in her interview with Colin and Samir appears to be the best path. Female creators are going to have to reach into their own pockets to protect the locations of their living spaces, scour the internet for information leaks, and hire security for public appearances–and hope all that is enough to keep them safe.