#IStandWithVinny trends after Twitch streamer is accused of sexual misconduct
Since allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against Vinny Vinesauce over the weekend, the popular Twitch streamer has been fighting back hard—and he has tons of support behind him.
Twitter user @DaxMax64, whose real name is Dakota Bailey and who is a fan of Vinesauce, started the #IStandWithVinny hashtag. Bailey told the Daily Dot that they support Vinesauce because he is "one of the nicest people I know." Bailey believes the allegations are a "smear campaign" against Vinesauce and added that they do not know the Twitch streamer in real life.
The saga began when a Twitter account called @VS_Experiences shared a 39-page document on Friday, detailing how Vinesauce allegedly established sexual relationships with fans.
In the document, four women shared their own experiences with Vinesauce. The women said his relationships with them were consensual but left them feeling confused, manipulated, and, in at least one case, with an alleged sexually transmitted disease.
The account did not respond to the Daily Dot when contacted on Monday, and the Daily Dot was not able to independently verify these claims.
The women did not share their identities and only referred to themselves as Person #1, Person #2, Person #3, and Person #4. All of the women alleged that Vinesauce went to great lengths to keep their respective relationships a "secret" and said he was overly concerned about being seen with them in public. Person #1 said this secrecy prevented her from sharing her pain of contracting human papillomavirus, as she said she could not reveal whom she got it from.
The women shared numerous screenshots of their alleged conversations with Vinesauce in which he admits to following one of them "secretly" on Snapchat. According to the screenshots, he was often the first one to make a move, or he followed their social media activity to build a connection with them.
The women said they were flattered in thinking someone so famous would be contacting them or would want to establish any kind of relationship with them.
“Once Vinny engaged in sexual activities with his fans, a line was crossed that he couldn't ever come back from," Person #3 wrote. "At that point, he wasn’t someone seeking a relationship, connection, or hookup. He was only seeking power."
In one instance, Person #4 claimed that after her sexual relationship with Vinesauce was over, she warned another woman who was reportedly going to meet his friend. She said the woman eventually blocked her, and when Vinesauce found out, he confronted her. She said he was "very angry."
"I was furious," Person #4 wrote. "At this point there was no doubt in my mind, Vinny was trying to shame me for trying to protect a woman in a situation he agreed to be sketchy."
Person #4 said Vinesauce members then began unfollowing her.
On Friday, after the document was released, Twitter user @actuallylichpit claimed to be the woman who Person #4 was referring to and denied blocking her. "That's not what happened and I literally screenshot every single tweet of our exchange because I felt emotionally manipulated by her," @actuallylichpit said.
In the screenshots shared in a follow-up tweet, it appears that in a conversation with a username that was censored, @actuallylichpit was warned about Vinesauce and responded respectfully to the person.
When contacted via Twitter, the user did not agree to share any further comments.
“I don’t have any comment about the authenticity of anything else in the document, but this persons warnings sent me into a night long panic that they talked me through and we left it very much on a caring note,” wrote the user, attaching screenshots of a conversation.
Since the document dropped, others came forward with similar allegations against Vinesauce.
On Saturday, Vinesauce announced he is pursuing legal action in response to the accusations and shared his comments in a pre-recorded, five-minute-long video on his Twitch channel, where he has 513,000 followers.
In the video, which has been viewed 80,000 times, he said he was "pretty fucked up from all this."
He said the allegations made in the document "does misrepresent me."
“I’m not really sure why they would post it other than to just hurt me or damage my career and just ... me," he said.
Since his statement, numerous followers are using the #IStandWithVinny hashtag to defend the streamer and attack the accusations against him.
Perhaps his most ardent supporter is Bailey, who created a pro-Vinesauce banner and spearheaded the #IStandWithVinny movement.
"I wanted to help start the #IStandWithVinny movement with the banner and avatar I created because I have watched vinny for nearly 10 years now, and he really is one of the nicest people I know," Bailey told the Daily Dot. "He is a huge inspiration for me, and the reason I started streaming myself as a VTuber."
Since Bailey's hashtag went viral, many have been using it to share their support for Vinesauce along with their pro-Vinesauce artwork.
“Listening to his staitment (sic) made me cry because you could tell how stressed he was. My thoughts and prayers go out to one of my favorite streamers of all time,” user @technoorgasm wrote under the #IStandWithVinny hashtag.
Bailey told the Daily Dot "thousands of people" are supporting Vinesauce via the #IStandWithVinny campaign.
"I want people to know for one, matters like this are private and stressful, and like Vinny came out and said, nobody should be going after or harassing either parties no matter how scummy the situation is," Bailey said.
Bailey said they did not read the full statement but watched a four-hour-long reading of the statement. "Even if Vinny did this, they still made him look 10x worse than who he is and thousands of people know he's a good person and streamer. I'm not going to stop watching or supporting him," Bailey said.
Vinny Vinesauce did not respond to the Daily Dot's request for comments.
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