What started off as a seemingly niche bit of internet drama between two YouTube personalities, Jacksfilms and Sssniperwolf, has escalated into something more serious after the latter doxxed the former.
In recent months, Jacksfilms has criticized Sssniperwolf regarding what he has claimed is her reaction videos crossing the line from being merely fair use to straight-up content theft. Jacksfilms claimed Sssniperwolf inserted popular TikTok videos into her reaction videos without crediting them or adding any substantially unique commentary to transform them. He further asserted some of the creators have since come out saying they didn’t receive a permission request from Sssniperwolf to use their videos. The practice of rebroadcasting viral clips without permission while collecting ad revenue for them is known as “freebooting.”
Sssniperwolf doxxing incident, explained
On October 13, Sssniperwolf posted an Instagram story asking her several million followers on the platform whether she should visit Jacksfilms’ house since she happened to be “5 mins away” from where she was at the time. After that, she then posted a picture of his home’s exterior with the caption, “Let’s talk like adults,” Insider reported.
In response, Jacksfilms has called on YouTube to deplatform Sssniperwolf, citing harassment of not only him but his wife, who also lives in the home and is not a YouTuber. On Sunday, he uploaded a YouTube video explaining his side of the situation, saying he and his wife felt “a little shaken up,” “violated,” and not safe in their own home. Jacksfilms also denied claims from Sssniperwolf that he has been “harassing” her, saying he has merely been “critical of her content.”
“What is harassment is coming to our home, sharing it for millions to see, and taunting me to come out. YouTube needs to take swift action and ban her from the platform ASAP. And the same goes for Instagram.”
On X (formerly Twitter), Jacksfilms explained Sssniperwolf later deleted the Instagram story of her being right outside his home. Nevertheless, he accused her of doxxing or the practice of releasing personal information about someone online without their consent.
Sssniperwolf has since accused Jacksfilms of “defamation” on Instagram for claiming she doxxed him, saying she got his address “on Google”.
How did this all start?
In previous videos and interviews, Jacksfilms has explained that one reason for his criticism of Sssniperwolf specifically was due to YouTube itself apparently bolstering her presence. For instance, she was selected as a VidCon 2023 YouTube Keynote Speaker. While Jacksfilms, whose real name is Jack Douglass, contends that there are plenty of YouTubers out there who freeboot content, it seemed particularly egregious that the platform would seemingly condone such behavior by highlighting Sssniperwolf, whose real name is Alia Shelesh, as a sort of star creator. According to VidCon’s website Sssniperwolf’s 34 million subscribers on YouTube makes her “one of the top Women YouTube stars in the world.”
When Jacksfilms voiced his criticism about Sssniperwolf on X, she responded in what spiraled into a full-blown fued. It seemed friendly at first, with Sssniperwolf saying in response to Jacksfilms’ initial post, “I’m going to have to start charging u 20% since you get your ideas from me 🤭.”
What Sssniperwolf was referring to here is the fact that Jacksfilms started a secondary channel solely aimed at satirizing Sssniperwolf’s content, with the oldest video on the JJJacksfilms subchannel dating back to 11 months ago.
However, when another X user replied “YOU STEAL IDEAS,” she doubled down on her position, saying “90% of what I upload are my ideas, people copy me and then people like you get confused.”
In the more nuanced part of Jacksfilms’ criticisms, he has accused Sssniperwolf of not being “transformative” enough with her reaction videos. In other words, he believes much of her content shouldn’t be protected under fair use because it doesn’t add enough novel commentary of her own. This could come in the form of Sssniperwolf sitting in silence for much of when the clip plays in a split screen format or merely summarizing what happens in the TikTok, rather than coming up with some kind of unique commentary about the clip.
On the satirical JJJacksfilms subchannel, Douglass started out by making reaction videos to Sssniperwolf’s reaction videos. Using an overlay of himself watching the video, he would periodically pause Sssniperwolf’s TikTok curation clip shows in order to add his own commentary as a way of displaying what transformative content actually looks like. Over time, the channel has evovled into specifically highlighting the ways her videos are not transformative, giving them a grade, crediting the original TikTok creators who made the videos, or pointing out other critiques.
Is doxxing illegal?
Doxxing, which is a slang term that evolved from the phrase “dropping dox” or “dropping documents,” usually tends to not be illegal, especially if it uses information obtained through legal means, according to Kaspersky, a cybersecurity company. That said, the practice of releasing someone’s personal information online can still “ruin lives,” the article said. However, there are some instances when doxxing does cross the line into illegality when it is used as a means of stalking, harassment, or making threats, depending on the local jurisdiction.
