Gaming

Trans Twitch streamer Keffals forced to flee country in wake of death threats and abuse

Clara Sorrenti, also known as Keffals online, getting ready to stream. (Hao Nguyen/Getty)

Trans Twitch streamer Keffals is planning to move to a different country after online harassers leaked her personal details.

Keffals, real name Clara Sorrenti, told Global News she plans to leave the country for her own safety after constant attacks by online harassers including a swatting incident on 5 August.

Swatting refers to an act of online harassment in which the harasser sends a troubling fake police report to a local precinct in the hopes armed officers will raid the victim, causing immense distress and potential injury or death.

Sorrenti tweeted about the incident on a backup account, saying she woke up to armed London Ontario police officers pointing firearms at her.

“When I went into the hallway and then saw that assault rifle, I screamed and I thought I was going to die,” she said. “They seized my work computer, my work cellphone, my personal cellphone, as well as my fiance’s work computer and personal cellphone.”

She was eventually given back her equipment but not before a lengthy experience with police officers who, according to Keffals, continually deadnamed her and referred to her as “your son” to her mother.

Since then, she has been continually doxxed – where personal information of a victim, including their address, is leaked. She and her friends have also suffered further swat attempts.

For the time being, Sorrenti has said she is living in several different hotels, moving to a different one every week. She is also using a virtual private network (VPN), which encrypts the IP address of her electronics while she’s online so she can’t be tracked.

She initially told the press her hotels were from the company Airbnb, but later clarified to Global News she had to “engage in misinformation” to cover her tracks.

“Using the money that was generously donated to me from the GoFundMe [page], I am able to keep myself safe until I secure a new place to live,” she said. “I cannot thank you all enough for giving me this opportunity that so many others have not had. I have already hired a lawyer [and] am consulting with a second lawyer.”

More recently, a harasser had hacked into her Uber delivery account and sent hundreds of dollars worth of food to her home, including six jugs of milk, and the hotel she had been staying at to avoid harassment was doxxed as a result.

“I want to keep working, and because I know I have this huge target on my back, I have decided to take refuge in Europe where I have close friends who are willing to host me so I can continue to stream while my stalkers continuously try to hunt me down,” Sorrenti said.

The streamer believes the majority of her harassers come from the forum KiwiFarms, which claims it is a “community dedicated to discussing eccentric people who voluntarily make fools of themselves”.

In a tweet on Tuesday (23 August), Sorrenti said the forum had even resorted to targeting her friends and family due to her campaign for website host Cloudflare to “drop KiwiFarms”.

“I will explain more in-depth when I arrive in Europe,” she said. “I do not negotiate with terrorists and I will not let them intimidate me.”

Register to save articles and more. It'll only take a minute and it's free.
JOIN US TODAY!