In the sprawling realm of YouTube, where the line between content creators and celebrities becomes increasingly blurred, Alia "SSSniperWolf" Shelesh has carved out a unique and enduring presence. Debuting as early as 2014, Alia was arguably the biggest and most influential female gaming personality in the late 2010s, which could be corroborated by her massive following on YouTube.
As of this writing, her main YouTube channel has an impressive tally of over 34 million subscribers, which places her at the 170th rank for the YouTube channel with the most subscribers.
A large part of this mammoth fan base is due to the fact that Alia has continued to captivate audiences with a variety of content and a unique vibrant online persona.
That said, despite all of her accolades and success as a YouTuber and celebrity, SSSniperWolf's journey to stardom has been marred by controversies that have left the digital realm abuzz.
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From instances of her racist past going viral in recent times to the infamous Jacksfilms drama, here are some of SSSniperWolf's most controversial moments.
Mocking s*uicial people on stream and four other instances where SSSniperWolf made waves for all the wrong reasons
1) Ghosting a terminally ill child
At the fag-end of December 2021, Keemstar's DramaAlert broke the story that Alia had ghosted a terminally ill fan. It all started when Kiara, the fan, appeared on Adam22's No Jumper podcast and expressed her desire to meet her idol SSSniperWolf.
Adam decided to help the young girl by relaying the request to the 28-year-old British-American YouTuber, which Alia was more than happy to oblige with.
Nonetheless, after a number of failed attempts to arrange a meeting due to a lack of consensus at the time, Kiara's mother took to social media to seek help from Alia's fanbase.
Despite SSSniperWolf reassuring the mother that she would reach out, Kiara's mother had had enough and decided to block Alia, which prompted Alia to send a video message to Kiara.
2) Cancelled on Twitter for homophobia and transphobia
Prior to her ghosting incident, SSSniperWolf was canceled on Twitter in November 2020 after a YouTuber named Chaodick uploaded a video that exposed Alia's "rude" side. The video compilation in question featured the popular 28-year-old YouTuber body-shaming an individual before labeling her a liar as well.
This allegation against Alia was backed by using one of her reaction videos from April 2019, where she was clipped laughing at the misgendering of a transgender woman.
The buck did not stop there, however, and the video revealed a series of tweets in which Alia can be seen mocking individuals with disabilities and making transphobic remarks.
3) Jacksfilms drama
The most recent controversy surrounding SSSniperWolf and fellow YouTuber Jacksfilms currently stems from as early as April 2022. It all kicked off after Alia and her then-boyfriend, Evan Sausage, bought a $7 million mansion in Arizona. Though this act had nothing controversial in it by nature, Jacksfilms uploaded a video in October titled after Alia's streaming alias wherein he mocked Alia's reaction content.
Despite the backlash that ensued, the feud died down until June 22, 2023, when YouTube Creators' X handle posted about Alia's source of inspiration when it comes to her videos.
Jacksfilms uploaded a screenshot of SSSniperWolf's TikTok reactions, suggesting that she borrowed ideas from others and that her content lacks any real effort now compared to her days as a gameplay commentator.
4) Mocking s*icidal people
Navigating the realm of digital content creation in the early 2010s was a rather tumultuous task. With YouTubers just attempting to dip their toes in the water and yet to decide on the type of content they wanted to devote their lives to, a ghastly sign of success was the use of dark humor.
It is safe to say the content that was considered acceptable on various social media platforms and not just YouTube is quite contentious in today's day and age.
SSSniperWolf, too, was one of the "edgy" ones back in the day, and as such, clips of her saying and doing some questionable things are easily available.
Most notably, in one instance, Alia can be seen mocking s*icidal people after joking to slit her wrists which understandably left a number of people quite alarmed and uncomfortable.
5) Racist behaviour
Wrapping up this list is a follow-up to the allegations mentioned above against SSSniperWolf's transphobic and homophobic behavior.
In 2019, while reacting to the 2019 MET Gala, Alia was clipped making a racist comment after popular American actress Zendaya attended the event dressed up as Cinderella.
The clip featured SSSniperWolf suggesting the actress should have attended the event dressed as Princess Tiana, a person of color, as she could not pull off the Cinderella look.
This was further worsened when past clips of her saying the n-word were circulated across social media, which led to further outcry.
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