Culture

Death threats sent to Minecraft YouTuber Technoblade under ‘KICKDave’ tag for alleged racist tweets

Apr 15 2021
Written by Ed Nightingale

Technoblade. (YouTube)

Minecraft YouTuber Technoblade has been called out on social media for supposedly racist comments.

In a now-deleted tweet from 30 May 2020, he shared a Change.org petition with the caption “murder is bad” following the killing of 46-year-old Black man George Floyd, which sparked a wave of anti-police brutality protests around the world.

Screenshots of the tweet have now resurfaced online and the hashtag #KICKDave began trending as the streamer’s real name was released.

Death threats have been sent to him using the hashtag, and older comments with allegedly racist and sexist terms have also been circulated that date back to when he was a teenager.

There has been a mixed response to the hashtag, with many uncomfortable with the older comments that he’s yet to address, but also condemning those sending death threats.

While some have requested an apology from Technoblade, others have defended the streamer, who lives with ADHD.

“Its understandable yall are upset, IM upset, but using a person’s real name when they’ve said they’re uncomfortable with it and telling him to k!ll himself is absolutely not the way to go,” reads one tweet.

“#KICKDave not the activism you think it is. Techno has adhd n social anxiety. going out of ur way to PURPOSELY trigger him is ableist,” another person added.

https://twitter.com/axeidentall/status/1382492857110499329?s=20

https://twitter.com/jioginn/status/1382503469572104197?s=20

https://twitter.com/grayskythunder/status/1382486430627233792?s=20

https://twitter.com/Nekowashere_/status/1382485204103680000?s=20

https://twitter.com/soup5234/status/1382498117711327237?s=20

Technoblade, known as Techno for short, is one of the most popular Minecraft streamers on YouTube with a following of 6.9 million subscribers.

Known for his dark and sarcastic sense of humour as well as his pig avatar, he’s admired for his strategy in playing the game in PvP (player vs player) environments and has a friendly rivalry with fellow Minecraft YouTuber Dream (20.7 million subscribers).

Examples of the 21 year old’s language have circulated on Reddit, including comparisons to Hitler and the Holocaust.

Fans are divided on whether the use of this language is based on deep-seated beliefs, or youthful ignorance.

One supporter pointed out an incident five years ago, where Technoblade made it clear that he wouldn’t tolerate homophobic slurs on his feed, as “evidence” that he has matured.