YouTubers Raise $30,000 For Charity After Being Harassed On Reddit

Words: Will Sawyer

For Matt and Shelby, the couple behind the Girlfriend Reviews YouTube channel, the last month has been a stressful time. The pair have faced fraudulent death threats, misinformation, and real harassment on Reddit that halted their regular video production. But now there's a happy ending to matters: they have raised over $30,000 for a pet charity in the USA dedicated to eradicating kill shelters for animals. But how does that relate? You'd best read on.

This all started when, after praising Naughty Dog's game in their coverage, Girlfriend Reviews became a target of a particular subreddit called r/TheLastOfUs2, which is basically devoted to attacking and undermining anything positive about The Last Of Us Part II - so if it's those golf memes you're after, you know where to go. The subreddit soon hosted plenty of posts and hateful messages about Girlfriend Reviews, and their opinions on the game. On 10 June 2021, the hornets' nest was kicked once again as the couple released a video titled 'Should Your Boyfriend Play Days Gone?', which negatively reviewed the game. The Girlfriend Reviews Twitter account then tweeted some of the hateful posts from the subreddit.

If all these words are too much for you, watch the channel itself explain the situation in the video embedded below...

After publicly calling out r/TheLastOfUs2 like this, one of the subreddit's members, known as u/TheRealRogerEbert, began posting screenshots to the subreddit of death threats he had received from Girlfriend Reviews fans. Only, it turned out that these death threats were faked, and that u/TheRealRogerEbert used alternate accounts to send them to himself. This was proven by Matt and Shelby, who examined the tone and language of the death threats and connected a golf-club related meme used in them to one frequently used by r/TheLastOfUs2 members.

After thoroughly investigating the situation and playing along with u/TheRealRogerEbert's emails asking the pair to get their fans under control, Matt and Shelby had sufficient evidence to out the user. This resulted in the user deleting their Reddit accounts, all their posts, and even the email address they had been using to communicate with Matt and Shelby.

So not only had the couple faced these fake death threats, r/TheLastOfUs2 had effectively been a victim of misinformation from u/TheRealRogerEbert, which led the couple to make a 20-minute video breaking down their investigation and trying to clear up the situation with r/TheLastOfUs2.

Check out GAMINGbible's review of The Last of Us Part II, below...

Speaking to Kotaku over email, Girlfriend Reviews added: "What made this feel important enough to be addressed was the seriousness of the accusations, the popularity of the post, and the large number of users who appeared to believe this man's claims without question, while also expressing a lot of anger towards us and wishing us harm."

Since the release of their investigation video, the couple have been in contact with Reddit and the moderators of r/TheLastOfUs2, but it seems that not much progress has been made. Girlfriend Reviews said: "After our video, we feel [r/TheLastOfUs2] tripled down by once again making stickied posts and statements that try to somehow cast us as the villains."

They continued: "That means, you guessed it, we've been receiving more hate and harassment. But this time, we're sleeping easy because the truth is out there. We just want the mods to say, 'Hey, guys, Girlfriend Reviews didn't do this. Sorry we allowed that post and lied to everyone.' It would also be nice if they stopped equating what they are going through - as a result of the things they did and said in public - with what they've put us through. It's victim blaming, and it's not okay."

It's worth reiterating here that nobody deserves to be harassed online or in person for their opinions on a video game, no matter how much they differ from someone else's.

Along with the release of their investigation, Matt and Shelby also launched a fundraiser campaign for the Best Friends Animal Society charity in the USA, and encouraged Girlfriend Reviews fans and critics alike to come together for this cause, because "at least we all like animals". So far over $30,000 has been raised for the charity, which at least represents a positive outcome from a very toxic and frankly disturbing situation.

Girlfriend Reviews' first video was a review of Red Dead Redemption 2 from the perspective of Shelby, a back-seat gamer who frequently watched her boyfriend Matt play video games. The video was quickly racked up views and caused the channel's subscriber count to surge from nothing, leading to Matt and Shelby making more videos. Almost three years later, the channel has over one million subscribers, and the Red Dead Redemption 2 video remains one of their most popular videos with over two million views.

Featured Image Credit: Girlfriend Reviews via Twitter, SIE/Naughty Dog

Topics: News, The Last of Us Part 2, YouTube