The small amount of fans that make up The Acolyte stans are targeting YouTubers over the cancelation of the series .
The Acolyte has been canceled after only one season, thought due to its poor viewership. It’s known that The Acolyte is the least-watched Star Wars show on Disney+, which has the worst viewership ratings.
However, following Amandla Stenberg’s recent video where she blames fans for the cancelation, her small amount of supporters have taken to social media in an attempt to get Star War fan accounts on YouTube shut down.
What did Amandla Stenberg say?
In her video, Stenberg said The Acolyte cancellation was “not a huge shock for me” and she blamed alt-right and conservative fans.
“For those who aren’t aware, there has been a rampage of vitriol that we have faced since the show was even announced, when it was still just a concept that no one had even seen it,” she said. She continued by pointing the blame at those she believes were behind the negative reaction: “A rampage of, I would say hyper conservative, bigotry and vitriol, prejudiced hatred and hateful language towards us.”
She added, “I just want to let those people know out there who supported us in that way, and supported us vocally despite and in the face of all of the vitriol that we received and the kind of the targeted attack, I would say we received by the alt right, just about you were deeply loved, appreciated, and it made this job all the worthwhile for me.”
What do Amandla Stenberg’s supporters say?
In a letter addressed to YouTube, Stenberg’s supporters, who claim to represent Star Wars fans (let’s be clear, they do not) criticizes the platform for allowing channels like Geeks + Gamers, RK Outpost, and Nerdrotic to engage in “targeted harassment” and “racist attacks” against “marginalized actors” in franchises like Star Wars.
The letter highlights Amandla Stenberg’s experience with online “bigotry,” comparing it to the harassment of fellow Star Wars actors like Kelly Marie Tran and Moses Ingram.
The letter claims that these YouTube channels profit from “hate campaigns,” specifically targeting “women of color,” and calls for YouTube to demonetize these creators, holding them accountable for violating community guidelines against harassment.
“The Star Wars fandom refuses to watch another marginalized actor or fan be singled out by prolonged, racist harassment from a handful of YouTubers as a result of YouTube’s inaction, which has transformed hate into a lucrative career path. It is concerning to us that targeting marginalized actors on other social media platforms has historically resulted in platform bans, whereas the same behavior has made provocateurs millionaires on YouTube. This should be highly concerning to advertisers, as well,” states the letter.
The letter continues, “We understand that YouTube has an important role to play in promoting free speech, however, content uploaded by Geeks + Gamers, RK Outpost, and Nerdrotic is not ‘opinion’ or ‘criticism.’ It is prolonged, targeted harassment against women of color. We urge YouTube to enforce its community guidelines and demonetize these channels immediately and permanently. Thank you. May The Force Be With You.
As I went over here, the reason no one watched The Acolyte is not because of YouTube, it’s because the show isn’t good. Maybe these people should be petitioning Disney for better content. That’s what we do.
YouTube is not the reason no one watched the show https://t.co/7FRLPNQDe3
— Cosmic Book News (@cosmicbooknews) September 5, 2024
