Popular Twitch streamer Benjamin ‘DrLupo’ Lupo has felt compelled to reiterate his stance against hate on Twitch, amid claims his community is growing increasingly toxic and “racist”.
The last few years have seen DrLupo launched into the most followed accounts on Twitch, thanks mainly to his time on Epic Games’ Fortnite, often alongside Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins.
However, such a monumental following brings issues, often in the form of individuals intentionally being toxic and making offensive remarks.
This is something DrLupo has struggled with of late, with some members of the Twitch community accusing his following of being “racist.” One Tweet accused Lupo of not doing enough to combat the toxicity among his followers, to which the streamer responded, asking: “You’re telling me I’m responsible for the thousands of random people that I don’t know?”
On October 30, a moderator for DrLupo’s Twitch shared a lengthy look at the channel’s history of combatting racism and hate in chat. The Google document, entitled Words, is designed to show the extensive amount of work Lupo and his mods go to in order to keep his community as hate-free as possible.
Examples given show messages from banned users, as well as messages dating back to 2016, in which DrLupo outlines what is not acceptable among his community.
The mod – Twitter user IC1415 – finished his explanation: “To those who would say that silence is happening, I humbly present this in an effort to show that we are not silent on this matter, we actively go after those in the community who bring these hateful words and remove them as swiftly as we can… I, alongside all of the moderation team, stand firmly against racism and wholly believe that it has no place in our community or more expansively, our society.”
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I want to say something about @DrLupo and his community: https://t.co/S1BQMEYRKb
— IC1415 (@IC1415) October 31, 2020
In response to IC’s statement, DrLupo said: “Racism, as always, will never be allowed in my community. Standing up for people is not a “trend” for me. I was raised better than that. Read this. All of it. Be kind to each other.”
He also clarified that he did not ask the mod to put the document together, but that they did so of their own accord.
Note – I did not ask IC to put this together. I didn't know he was doing this until part way through Animal Talking tonight.
As I've said before, and will always say – I will learn more about how I can help to make the world a better place. All we have is each other. ❤️💜
— DrLupo (@DrLupo) October 31, 2020
The document has been viewed widely, with many commending DrLupo’s response to the issues surrounding a small minority of his followers.
It’s clear that he is taking a zero-tolerance policy to toxicity and racism within his fan-base, and his mods are right by his side.
