MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

#IStandWithVinny: Who is Dakota Bailey? Twitter user starts trend to support Vinny Vinesauce, touts new avatar

Vinesauce found himself embroiled in controversy after screenshots of some old mails that were reportedly sent by him started flooding the internet

After popular gaming streamer Vinny Vinesauce was accused of sexual misconduct by several women, there were many who came out in his support. The Twitch streamer found himself embroiled in controversy on Friday, April 2, after screenshots of some old mails that were reportedly sent by him to women started flooding the internet.

The accusations took a more serious turn when a Twitter account called @VS_Experiences shared a 39-page document on Friday, April 2, detailing accounts of four women, who were just referred to as Person #1, Person #2, Person #3, and Person #4. With the post a message was also written that read, “Vinny Vinesauce has been engaging sexually with his fan base and making them stay silent about it for years in order to protect his reputation. The following contains 4 statements with screenshots and an audio recording.”

READ MORE

Who is Vinny Vinesauce? Gaming streamer faces shocking sexual misconduct allegations but here's the truth

Who was Marvin Scott III? #JusticeForMarvin trends after mentally unwell Texas Black man dies in police custody

The account from the first anonymous accuser stated that Vinesauce gave her human papillomavirus (HPV) - the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI). Person #3 claimed, “Once Vinny engaged in sexual activities with his fans, a line was crossed that he couldn’t ever come back from. At that point, he wasn’t someone seeking a relationship, connection, or hookup. He was only seeking power.”

Person #4 also mentioned an instance in the document. She wrote when her sexual relationship with Vinesauce ended, she went on to warn another woman who was reportedly going to meet his friend. But that woman blocked her and the streamer discovered about it. She was reportedly being confronted by him very angrily. “I was furious. At this point there was no doubt in my mind, Vinny was trying to shame me for trying to protect a woman in a situation he agreed to be sketchy,” the accuser added.

But a Twitter user, @DaxMax64, whose real name is Dakota Bailey, is reportedly sure about Vinesauce’s innocence as they began the #IStandWithVinny hashtag. “A lot of you liked my vinesauce banner I made for the Vinny situation, so here is an avatar version if anyone wants that too. #IStandWithVinny #Vinesauce #Vinny #VTuber #ENVTuber #VTuberEN,” Bailey tweeted. They also shared another post that read, “Video is up. Please, do not follow or sub to me on here or YT for this. Feel free to share and such, but please do not send it to Vinny right now either. https://youtu.be/0-bE8xgWc1k #VTuber #ENVTuber #VTuberEN #Vinesauce #Vinny #IStandWithVinny #WeAreVinesauce.”

Speaking with Daily Dot, Bailey, said, “I wanted to help start the #IStandWithVinny movement with the banner and avatar I created because I have watched vinny for nearly 10 years now, and he really is one of the nicest people I know. He is a huge inspiration for me, and the reason I started streaming myself as a VTuber.”

After Bailey, a lot of people started posting #IStandWithVinny to show their support to  Vinesauce. One such supporter tweeted, “I firmly believe that Vinny is innocent. All of the things I've been seeing are very sketchy and details keep changing. I hope Vinny and his lawyer put a stop to whoever started this #Vinny #vinesauce #istandwithvinny.” Another one said, “Cancel culture is a scorched earth option. The idea is if there's any possibility of wrongdoing you destroy someone's life first, and sort it out never. It operates under the belief that if you ruin 1000 lives to punish 1 person deserving, that that's fair. #IStandWithVinny.”

“Vinesauce has been one of my main internet media entertainment since 2014. Whenever I want to laugh, see someone play bad games or find new games to play, I always go and watch some of Joel and Vinny's streams. I genuinely believe this acussations are false, so #IStandWithVinny,” a person said.

Meanwhile, Vinesauce also came forward in his defense and said he would take legal action against the allegations. In a five-minute-long video, which was pre-recorded and shared on his Twitch channel, he said that he was “pretty f**ked up from all this.” “I’m not really sure why they would post it other than to just hurt me or damage my career and just … me,” Vinesauce added.

Bailey, on the other hand, added, “I want people to know for one, matters like this are private and stressful, and like Vinny came out and said, nobody should be going after or harassing either parties no matter how scummy the situation is.” They added, “Even if Vinny did this, they still made him look 10x worse than who he is and thousands of people know he’s a good person and streamer. I’m not going to stop watching or supporting him.”