The Vtuber ironmouse is one of the most successful female streamers on Twitch. In a short time, two of her channels were removed from YouTube. A nasty scheme to unveil her identity might be behind this.
What kind of Twitch streamer is she? ironmouse is a Vtuber, a virtual streamer who presents herself through an avatar in the form of an anime girl with pink hair. Little is known about her identity, but it is known that she aspired to a career as an opera singer, which she had to give up due to an immune deficiency.
ironmouse is currently the most watched female streamer on Twitch, where she is holding a subathon for her 2 million followers (via SullyGnome). However, while she is successful on one streaming platform, she is taking a heavy loss on YouTube: two of her channels were removed within a few weeks.
Fans believe in terrible blackmail
What is the situation with the blocked channels? At the beginning of September 2024, ironmouse announced that her VOD channel, where recordings of her streams are uploaded, had been removed from YouTube. The reason appears to be baseless copyright strikes.
In the night of September 21st in our time, ironmouse announced on X that her main channel has also been removed from YouTube. She is incredibly sad and shocked and apologizes to her fans. Her legal team is already working on the matter, assures the streamer.
What could be behind this? The copyright strikes could be a nasty scheme to reveal the identity of the Vtuber. Ironmouse explained in a stream about the ban of her VoD channel: to save her channel, she must contest the copyright complaints. However, she would need to provide personal information such as her name and address.
However, she fears that the person behind the copyright claims could use this information to dox her, i.e., publish her private contact details. This is a criminal offense in Germany, punishable by up to 3 years in prison (via Recht.Help)
The streamer stated that she does not intend to provide her personal data. The protection of her identity takes higher priority.
Fans fear that the person behind the strikes may actually aim for just that and use the copyright claims to extort personal information. This is a “terribly stupid system” by YouTube (via X).
For Vtubers, protecting their identity is generally an important issue: Twitch apologizes for accidentally turning on the cameras of streamers who do not want to be seen
Other users note that there is currently a real wave of bans against virtual streamers. They believe: Twitch and apparently also YouTube have something against Vtubers. Recently, we reported on the case of the Vtuber fallenshadow on MeinMMO, due to which an entire community felt disadvantaged.
