A major bombshell was recently dropped on The Ralph Retort’s Killstream, where YouTuber Mundane Matt was caught red-handed falsely flagging the channels of other YouTubers who’d criticized him.
The sordid affair was duly chronicled by internet auriga Mister Metokur. His video serves as a dire warning against eCelebrity hubris.
Executive summary: A number of YouTubers complained of receiving strikes and even having their streaming privileges suspended after publishing videos critical of Matt. The affected accounts ranged from relatively obscure producers to #ComicsGate luminary Ethan Van Sciver.
Matt strongly denied accusations that he’d falsely flagged the videos for hate speech, adult content, and other offenses. He agreed to appear on the Killstream, ostensibly to prove his innocence. The stream took a strange and startling turn when co-host Zidan sent Matt a link whereby he could look up his YouTube flagging history. Matt stalled for fifteen minutes as others on the show and in the chat quickly disclosed their own flagging histories.
Special guest Keemstar, who has accused Matt of falsely blaming him for a 2016 swatting incident, finally ordered Matt to share his YouTube flagging history live on stream. The results proved that Matt had indeed flagged videos he’d denied reporting that same night, including uploads by user Dame Pesos.
#GamerGate Implications
Mundane Matt’s fall is tragic enough, but as Mister Metokur has hinted, Matt’s two-faced antics may merit a major revision of #GamerGate history.
For those who weren’t involved in the infamous consumer revolt, the origins of #GamerGate go back almost exactly four years to a series posts by Eron Gjoni accusing his girlfriend Zoe Quinn of sleeping with five video game developers/journalists. A number of YouTubers produced videos on the scandal, which were pulled due to false DMCA claims.
Actor Adam Baldwin coined the hashtag #GamerGate after viewing a series of videos about the developing controversy by the Internet Aristocrat, AKA Mister Metokur. I.A.’s first Five Guys video opened with Mundane Matt’s report that one of his videos had been falsely taken down due to having been falsely flagged by Zoe Quinn.
That incident rapidly precipitated the growth of Matt’s channel, his rise to prominence in the new consumer revolt, and his friendship with Adam Baldwin. The following is speculative, yet bears consideration. Given that Matt has now been proven guilty of the same false flagging he accused Zoe Quinn of, and in light of hints arising from the Keemstar affair that Matt may have swatted himself, could the DMCA takedown incident that led I.A.’s video, which in turn inspired Adam Baldwin to create the #GamerGate hashtag, have been a hoax?
Only Mundane Matt and Zoe Quinn know the truth. But one truth that everyone in #GamerGate knows is that the ride never ends.