Two YouTubers Fought Over Doxxing Accusation. YouTube Is Being Criticized for Not Intervening Earlier

YouTube announced on X (formerly Twitter) that it would demonetize a creator after she posted a photo of a fellow YouTuber’s house on her Instagram story. SSSniperwolf (Alia Shelesh) is a YouTuber with over 34 million subscribers and 5.6 million Instagram followers, who is best known for making reaction videos to TikToks. And JacksFilms (Jack Douglass), a fellow YouTuber with over four million subscribers, is known for his comedic skits and parodies. The two have been embroiled in a quarrel online after the incident occurred last Friday. Douglass had repeatedly called for YouTube to take action after Shelesh’s post, but the company was slow to respond until now.

The two YouTubers have been at odds for some time now; they have both been creating content on the platform for over a decade, but more recently, SSSniperwolf began posting videos where she’d react to TikToks. Douglass has criticized her content for months, saying that the videos do not properly credit the creators she is reacting to and claims her content is unoriginal, which Shelesh denies.

On Oct. 13, Shelesh posted a photo on her Instagram story with text that read, “Should I go visit @Jacksfilms? He lives 5 mins away from my shoot.” She proceeded to upload several more posts to her story, one of which was a photo of the outside of Douglass’ house and text that read, “Let’s talk like adults.” Douglass posted a screenshot of the Instagram story to X and accused Shelesh of doxxing him (a slang term for revealing where someone lives), which she denied. He tagged YouTube and called for her videos to be demonetized.

TIME reached out to YouTube, Douglass, and Shelesh for comment but did not receive a response.

“I have no idea how to Dox,” Shelesh wrote on Instagram.

On Oct. 14, YouTube responded to a post on X that it was tagged in, that asked, “What is your policy on if a YouTuber doxxes another YouTuber?” The company shared a link to its policy on harassment and bullying, saying, “We don't allow harmful behaviors like threat & doxxing.” A community note was added to the post, providing context pointing out that the platform had not taken action against SSSniperwolf.

Douglass uploaded a video to YouTube the same day, explaining the situation to his followers. “In my 17 years on YouTube, I've never once had someone come to my home and vaguely threaten me,” he says in the video. “Sssniperwolf needs to be deplatformed."

After not hearing from YouTube, Douglass quote-tweeted YouTube’s post about their harassment policy on Oct. 17 and said, “@TeamYouTube, the best time to remove Sssniperwolf from your platform was Friday night… The second best time is now.”

YouTube responded to Douglass’s X post today and wrote, “Confirming SSSniperWolf has received a temporary monetization suspension per Creator Responsibility policies.” It continued, “Off-platform actions that put others’ personal safety at risk harm our community & the behavior on both sides isn’t what we want on YT. Hoping everyone helps move this convo to a better place.”

Shelesh apologized to both Douglass and her fans in a lengthy post to X. “I’m sorry to Jacksfilm, YouTube, the entire creator community, and my incredible fans for not being a better example for appropriate conflict resolution,” the post reads. “Jacksfilms, while we certainly don’t see eye to eye and have our differences, I am sorry for reacting the way I did when I should’ve taken the opportunity to show young creators how adults and professionals resolve conflict by communicating directly, respectfully, and privately; not for views or content, but a meaningful example of how conflict should be solved.”

She ends the post by saying she plans to reach out to connect and communicate with Douglass about how to move forward, while also thanking YouTube for “holding [her] accountable,” saying she deserves her demonetization and plans to learn from this.