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Ethan Ralph

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Ethan Ralph
Ethan Ralph - Fall 2020.jpg
Ralph in 2020
Born1985/1986 (age 34–35)
Memphis, Tennessee[1]
CitizenshipAmerican
OccupationPodcaster, alt-right internet personality
Years active2014–present
Known forKillstream

Ethan Oliver Ralph (born 1985 or 1986)[2] is an alt-right[2] American podcaster who came to prominence as a leader of the Gamergate controversy,[3][4] during which he doxed and harassed game developer Brianna Wu.[5] His primary platform is his podcast, the Killstream.[6]

Ralph has been deplatformed from services including YouTube,[7] where he formerly hosted his show. As of January 2021, the Killstream was hosted on Trovo Live, after receiving a month-long suspension from the alt-tech streaming service DLive earlier in January.[8][9] The show is also published on Apple Podcasts.[10]

Career

Killstream

Ralph hosts a podcast called the Killstream.[6] Among the Killstream's guests have been Red Ice co-founder Henrik Palmgren[11] and Lana Lokteff.[12] According to Washingtonian, the Killstream "frequently shares extremist propaganda".[13]

Ralph's political views are alt-right,[2] and Politico has described Ralph as a "white supremacist-sympathetic livestreamer".[6] According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Ralph has "featured numerous prominent white nationalists" on the Killstream.[14] Ralph self-identifies as a right-wing conservative, though in 2016 he told The Washington Post, "if you want to call me alt-right, that’s probably fair".[2][15]

Originally hosted on YouTube, the show was distributed on the alt-tech platform DLive after YouTube banned the account in November 2018.[16] In January 2021, DLive suspended Ralph's account for a month and Ralph began broadcasting on Trovo Live.[9] The show is also published on Apple Podcasts.[10]

In the period of April–October 2020, the Killstream earned Ralph US$24,346 on DLive.[8]

The Ralph Retort

Ralph is editor-in-chief of the conservative news website The Ralph Retort.[2]

Controversies

Gamergate

Ralph came to prominence as a leader of the Gamergate controversy,[3][4] during which he doxed and harassed game developer Brianna Wu.[5]

#Healstream

After accepting donations via YouTube's Super Chats[note 1][16] feature to be donated to St. Jude's Children Hospital, some of which had attached messages written by Ralph's fans which denied the Holocaust or which celebrated the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting,[17] St. Jude's refunded all of the donations from YouTube that came from the Killstream.[7] After a report in the Wall Street Journal on the incident, YouTube terminated Ralph's account in November 2018.[16]

Bitcoin donations

Payments in bitcoin worth more than $500,000 were made to 22 different virtual wallets, most of them belonging to far-right activists and white nationalist personalities, before the storming of the U.S. Capitol in January 2021. Ralph received a donation of approximately 0.5BTC, then worth US$9,595.[15][18]

Notes

  1. ^ The Killstream is a podcast which was simulcast over YouTube. Super Chats are a YouTube feature where users can pay to make the message they write appear for longer than other messages which appear in the chat section of a livestream. Ralph also read Super Chats aloud, taking time out of the stream, to encourage more donations.

References

  1. ^ @TheRalphRetort (May 18, 2020). "I was born in Memphis, but I lived across the bridge in West Memphis until I was 21" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Moyer, Justin Wm (September 9, 2016). "Gamergate activist charged with assault on officers, public intoxication in Virginia". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved January 1, 2021. "If you want to call me alt-right, that's probably fair," Ralph said.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Gilbert, Ben (September 7, 2016). "A prominent leader of Gamergate was just arrested on charges of assaulting a police officer". Business Insider. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Florentine, Sharon (September 15, 2016). "Gamergate leader's arrest doesn't signal change". CIO. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Wu, Brianna (September 7, 2016). "Gamergate Leader Arrested on Two Felony Counts of Assaulting a Police Officer". The Daily Dot. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b c Nguyen, Tina (November 11, 2020). "MAGA nation tries to rally around Trump with MAGApalooza". Politico. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b Koh, Yoree (November 3, 2018). "Hate Speech on Live 'Super Chats' Tests YouTube". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b Gais, Hannah; Hayden, Michael Edison (November 17, 2020). "Extremists Are Cashing in on a Youth-Targeted Gaming Website". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b Ethan Ralph [@TheRalphRetort] (January 13, 2021). "DLive has suspended me for one month. The rest of this week's Killstreams will be broadcast on Trovo. We'll see how that pans out going forward. I have reason to think it might go well! Time will tell! Please follow me there!" (Tweet). Archived from the original on January 19, 2021. Retrieved January 19, 2021 – via Twitter.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b "#Killstream on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  11. ^ Gais, Hannah (October 23, 2019). "YouTube Yanks Second Red Ice Channel". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  12. ^ Holt, Jared (August 21, 2018). "'Alt-Right' Radio Host: Alex Jones Is A 'Gateway Drug' To 'Our Side'". Right Wing Watch. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  13. ^ Beaujon, Andrew (November 12, 2021). "There's a Very Real Potential for Violence at Saturday's MAGA Events in DC, Say Extremism-Watchers". Washingtonian. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
  14. ^ "Extremists Are Cashing in on a Youth-Targeted Gaming Website". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  15. ^ Jump up to: a b Kharif, Olga; Mehrotra, Kartikay (January 19, 2021). "Far Right Groups Get Bitcoin Windfall Weeks Before Capitol Riot". Bloomberg. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
  16. ^ Jump up to: a b c "YouTube's Super Chat hijacked for hate speech". CNET. November 3, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  17. ^ Alexander, Julia (November 5, 2019). "YouTube live streams get even more Twitch-like with Super Stickers launch". The Verge. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  18. ^ Reuters Staff (January 14, 2021). "Large bitcoin payment made to far-right individuals before U.S. Capitol attack: report". Reuters. Retrieved May 13, 2021.

External links

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