Over the past week, a number of well-known Fortnite leakers and dataminers were targeted by a troll group who got their Twitter accounts banned under the latter’s Counterfeit Goods Policy. Now, popular streamer Danial “Keemstar” Keem is helping these leakers get their accounts back.
Leaks and the dataminers who look for them play a big part in Fortnite‘s community. Fans often wait with bated breath for any new information that these dataminers are able to uncover from the game’s files. These dataminers usually share their findings on their Twitter accounts, where they can amass large followings doing so. All this got put to a stop however last week. This was when a group of unknown individuals started reporting the dataminers accounts for supposedly violating Twitter’s Counterfeit Goods Policy.
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The policy exists to prevent people from using Twitter as a way to sell counterfeit goods. As for how the dataminers were targeted, this has to do with how a number of them also run promotions and giveaways for Fortnite skins on their accounts. Since these are covered by the Counterfeit Goods Policy, the supposed troll group reported them as having run fake promotions.
One of the first to be hit was Fortnite news and giveaway account TJCobain. After two of his accounts were suspended, TJCobain posted a video on a third account asking the community, and Keemstar in particular, for help.
After TJCobain posted their video, other dataminers also started reporting that the same thing happened to them. Hypex, who was one of the dataminers who found files hinting at a supposed Splatoon collaboration, stated on a second account that they got suspended after someone reported them for faking a giveaway. After a few hours, Hypex eventually got their account back.
On September 6, Keemstar finally spoke up about the suspensions, and stated that he was helping some folks who were suspended. “I clearly understand there’s some exploits causing many in the community that are unverified to get suspended on Twitter!” he explained. “Unfortunately I can only help people I know. If I don’t know u I can’t stick my neck out for u when u might have actually been banned correctly.”
Following this, Keemstar made another tweet yesterday where he stated that he had gotten in touch with Twitter, and that they would be lifting the suspensions by today. However, some of the accounts he vouched for will still remain suspended because these apparently did break Twitter’s rules. Neither Keemstar nor Twitter however have publicly stated which accounts will remain suspended. However, as of the time of writing, a number of well known leakers, including Yogev and Shiina (who leaked the Fortnite World Cup themed skins) are still suspended.
Aside from which dataminers actually violated the counterfeit goods policy, the incident also raises the questions of who the people who reported the accounts are, and why they did so. However, a few replies to TJCobain’s original tweet seem to accuse him of actually having scammed people with giveaways.
People using fake accounts made to look like known Fortnite players to scam other players seems to be an issue that these dataminers, and other people who run giveaways, have had to deal with before. Some time back, TJCobain actually created the #tjlegit hastag on Twitter to help deal with people trying to use his name to scam folks. However, a quick look at the hashtag on Twitter does show people still complaining about getting scammed.
With the above in mind, it’s clear that the recent Twitter suspensions are just a part of an even bigger issue around these giveaways. Scams revolving around Fortnite cosmetic giveaways are something that cannot be solved by just a few big names (like Keemstar and the dataminers) in the community alone. Rather, Epic Games ifself will most likely have to get involved to put a stop to it.
