Popular Final Fantasy XIV YouTuber JoCat has announced that he is taking an indefinite hiatus due to ongoing harassment and threats. MeinMMO tells you the details.
The popular YouTuber for the MMORPG Final Fantasy
Who is JoCat?
Popular video becomes YouTuber’s downfall after reaching the wrong people
Which video is it about? According to JoCat, the harassment stemmed from a specific video of his. It is a gender-bending parody of the song Boys by Lizzo entitled I Like Girls.
You can see the video here:
The video features various popular female gaming and series characters. In this video, JoCat describes how he likes almost everything about women, every feature – whether they’re tall or short, curvy or muscular. The video has now received over 11 million views.
Although many fans celebrated the video and praised it as an expression of body positivity, over time JoCat became the victim of harassment and threats, he points out.
He explains that the harassment escalated from online threats to worrying packages sent to his family home.
He says this in his statement:
[..]It [das Video] received a consistently positive response from my audience, my colleagues and my partner.
About a year later, it seemed to expand beyond its target audience, and since then I have seen and received many assumptions about my character, my history, my beliefs, my relationships and those of my partner, as well as threats of violence against me and my family, doxxing attempts, and ridicule , even from people I respect and look up to. [..]
JoCat via jocat.net
He explains that a significant amount of the harassment took place primarily on Twitter, where he could simply log out and ignore the haters. However, a fair amount also leaked into other areas of his daily life that are harder to ignore – private direct messages on Discord and Twitch as well as suspicious packages sent to his family.
Although he is very grateful for what this job has done for him and his family, he is simply not strong enough to continue if it means having to accept this kind of burden. Maybe that made him weak, but he rarely thought about it otherwise.
At the end of his statement, he emphasized that he never intended to upset anyone. His goal is always to create things that he feels passionate about and for fun.
You can find his full statement on his official website jocat.net.
This is what the community says: His YouTube video I Like Girls, on X and on Reddit receive numerous comments from users. We have summarized a few for you:
Currently, JoCat will continue to continue his D&D project Heart of Elynthi and JOmega. With JOmega he campaigns for trans rights and awareness by raising money for the charity Gendered Intelligence via his stream, while he promotes the ultimate raid TOP (The Omegea Protocol) in the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV.
And for every wipe he donates an amount to the organization. The project has been running since March 2023. Once these two projects are completed, he will take an indefinite break from publishing content.
The developer of The Coffin of Andy and Leyley was also evicted:
The Internet has once again chased away a developer – she only lives offline and doesn’t even want to hear from fans