When trolls swatted Trans Twitch streamer Keffals last August 5th, she claimed that she was awakened by armed police officers at her door.
Swatting is a form of harassment in which harassers trick emergency services into sending police to the wrong address. For her safety, Keffals left her Canadian home and moved to a hotel. She became well-known on Twitch for her political commentary and support of the trans community.
She said that she had to move to a different, secret location because the first hotel she was staying at had been doxxed, and claimed that while armed police have not visited her again, trolls have been sending her pizzas in an effort to threaten her in the knowledge that they are aware of her residence.
Keffals was unsure of how trolls discovered her former hotel, but she speculated that it might be related to an image she posted online of her fiancee’s cat on the hotel bed.
Given the prior hoax, deputy police chief of the London Police Service Trish McIntyre expressed concern regarding recent attempts to doxx Keffals once more.
Following by the fact that she was awakened by London police pointing an assault rifle in her face at her home, Keffals gained widespread attention. She was detained after malicious trolls sent council members in London, Ontario, death threats while posing as her.
The messages made false claims that she had murdered her mother and planned to murder cisgender or straight individuals.
Prior to being exonerated of the charges, she was detained for a number of hours and had her computers, phones, and other electronic devices seized for a number of days.
Since a few years ago, swatting has been used against numerous online gamers, content producers, streamers, and users. It resulted in the shooting death of 28-year-old Andrew Finch, who was killed by police in 2017 while trying to enter his Wichita, Kansas, home.
Swatting has affected a number of LGBTQ+ streamers, and unfortunately, attacks on the queer community on Twitch happen far too frequently.
In September 2021, Twitch creators and viewers took part in “A Day Off Twitch” as a form of protest against the onslaught of hate raids on the game streaming service. The boycott came after the “#TwitchDoBetter” viral campaign, which sought to end the rise of racism, transphobia, homophobia, and abuse on Twitch.