Here's an interesting story I've been watching develop:
#MagicGate. It's a story that involves Progressive Agendas, Harassment Allegations, Witch Hunts, YouTube Algorithms, and Pedophiles.
Some disclaimers, I can't remember how I stumbled across this, but I started watching this develop back in around Oct 2017. Originally it was basically nothing more than YouTube drama, but has recently taken a very bizarre and rather disturbing twist. Also, I'm not someone who plays Magic the Gathering at all. I know what it is (I guess for those who don't, it's a trading card game), and played a bit when I was a kid, but havent seen a Magic card in over 15 years.
First character to introduce is a man named Jeremy Hambly, who goes by the user names Unsleevedmedia and TheQuartering on YouTube. He is one of, if not the largest YouTube content creators regarding Magic the Gathering. He's also not one to be shy, and isn't afraid to share his opinions. He has a record of being critical of Wizards of the Coast (company that makes the game, part of Hasboro Games) on things he disagrees with, one of which has been the progressive agenda being pushed in the MTG community.
The other character involved at the beginning of this was Christine Sprankle, a prominent cosplayer in the MTG community. She was one of the top cosplayers in MTG, earning money through services like Patreon for dressing up in MTG costumes and posing in pictures for lonely young men, and going to conventions to sign autographs.
In the summer of 2017, Jeremy made some comments on Twitter, questioning Christine's motives and methods of being involved in the MTG community.
Several months later, in Nov 2017, Christine announced she was retiring from MTG cosplay, citing persistent harassment from Jeremy as her main reason. As far as I can tell, there was no evidence other than his tweets from the summer.
Naturally, Jeremy was targeted by an army of white knights, demanding that he be banned from MTG, wanting him sued, and his YouTube channels removed. Some of these white knights were high ranking MTG judges, one of whom went so far as to make instructional videos on how to mass flag Jeremy's YouTube content.
In Dec 2017, Jeremy was hit with a lifetime DCI ban (from what I gather, you have to have a DCI number to play in official tournaments), with the reasons being targeted harassment and hate speech.
Nearing the end of Dec, it was revealed that Christine actually left MTG cosplay because she had decided to go back to school. Jeremy's lifetime ban was not lifted.
With nothing to lose, Jeremy started making videos pointing out the hypocacy of WOTC in banning him for harassment, and then presenting evidence to the amount of harassment he has received from members of the MTG community, up to an including people doxxing him, which has lead to people sending letters and packages to his personal address.
At the same time as he was making these videos, he opened up a gmail account called
WOTCaskedforthis@gmail.com, and just asked the community to send him any dirt they had on WOTC.
Very quickly, multiple reports of known pedophiles within the MTG judging community started coming in. Jeremy dug into it, and wouldn't you know it, he confirmed that there were convicted sex offenders and convicted pedophiles active within the Judging comminty - and there was no background checks being done on anyone.
It's important to keep in mind, parents drop kids off at the local gaming store for tournaments, and leave them with the store owners and judges all day long. None of these convicted sex offenders are (were) DCI banned - yet Jeremy was.
The more Jeremy looked, the more he found. He then called out WOTC on this. Both WOTC and Hasboro have yet to make an official statement. However, on one of the WOTC top personal's personal twitter account, the statement was made that "the judges aren't official employees of WOTC, so not our responsibilty".
After the tweet was made, Jeremy was able to prove that someone at WOTC was retroactively banning some of the offenders Jeremy was naming.
The day after Jeremy made the video reporting on the pedos (end of Dec, early Jan) his main YouTube channel, The Quartering, was mass flagged and I believe automatically given 3 community strikes, which from what I can gather, means a channel is completely toast. Lucky for Jeremy, he's said that he knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who is really really high up in YouTube, personally reviewed the situation, and The Quartering has just in the last day or so being reinstated. It does not have any new content on it yet. Jeremy claims that it was explained to him that once the mass flagging happened, YouTube algorithms took over, which is why the channel got banned so quickly and without actual human review.
This is the best summary I've been able to find (warning for language)
Here's links to Jeremy's YouTube pages
The Quartering
Unsleeved Media
The pedophile issue aside, which is crazy in and of itself - that there would be an organization of volunteers who routinely work around children, in positions of power, and do not require any kind of background checks, plus the hypocrisy of WOTC saying they have a zero tolerance policy for pedos and sex offenders, yet they routinely have convicted offenders participating and not on any ban list.
That bit aside though, two things stand out. One, the witch hunt against Jeremy that was started because of false or inaccurate accusations. Two, a private company (WOTC) banning someone from a community because of opinions they expressed on Twitter. What made that hit home for me was the analogy, what if I said something on Twitter that Steam/Polyphony Digital/Slight Mad Studios/Zenimax (companies I've sunk 100s of dollars or more into) didn't like, and they decided to ban me from a gaming community for expressing political or personal opinions on social media. That's a scenario that makes me uncomfortable.