Blackmail, stalking and death threats: Cosplayer Rurusama shares what it's like being an influencer

Being in the public eye as an influencer is a double-edged sword; while such individuals get plenty of love from their followers, they also get a fair amount of hate too. 

Case in point, popular content creator who goes by the moniker Rurusama.

The 23-year-old influencer, who started out as a cosplayer in 2018, revealed to AsiaOne that she receives nasty comments on the daily, ranging from disparaging remarks about her upbringing to her physical appearances. 

"There are general comments about my looks and figure, but I think those are the least of my concerns out of all those hate comments," she shared. 

"I think the ones that really tops it all are death threats. Threats are really common."

There were verbal threats of physical abuse and death. She has also been stalked and blackmailed to send over nudes or risk her family getting hurt, she elaborated. 

Rurusama, who declined to give her real name, recounted how at a recent event, she was in the toilet when she received a message from someone claiming to be at the same place and threatening to "do harm" to her. 

In a panic, she called her father and was later accompanied home unscathed. 

That incident left her feeling quite shaken. 

"Whether they were like joking or not, I think that it caused me discomfort," she confessed.

To safeguard and help victims like Rurusama, laws to tackle online harms were mooted and will kick in next year after the Parliament passed an Online Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill on Nov 9.

The Bill seeks to amend the Broadcasting Act to make social media platforms liable if they fail to protect local users from online harms, 

Some examples of online harms include cyberbullying, harassment, abuse and sexual exploitation. 

Cyberbullying perceived most harmful

In fact, in a recent survey by AsiaOne to find out which types of online behaviour users considered toxic or harmful, slightly more than half, or some 52 per cent of the 1,126 respondents pointed to cyberbullying.

Coming a close second and third were harassment and public shaming, as indicated by 48 per cent and 46 per cent of the respondents.

At the bottom of the list was cancel culture, where only 32 per cent of the respondents felt it was harmful. 

Another interesting point to note is that while verbal abuse – which 45 per cent of the respondents indicated – was the fourth most likely to be identified as a form of harmful online behaviour, respondents between the ages of 25 to 44 were relatively less likely to consider it to be harmful or toxic. 

AsiaOne's Consumer Insights and Analytics Office head Edmund Chua explained that the research shows that there is a general awareness of the presence of harmful online behaviour and the possible impact of this behaviour on victims.

"There is also a broad consensus that more should be done to regulate such behaviour, and appropriate regulation to protect Singaporeans from online harm is unlikely to be perceived to be an infringement on free speech by the majority of the general public," he said. 

Banned from the internet

Among those who believe that more should be done to regulate harmful online behaviour, respondents also proposed ways to tackle the problem. 

Some 5.9 per cent of respondents shared that penalties like fines or jail terms should be mete out on perpetrators of online harm.

In more extreme cases, three of these respondents even shared that the death penalty should be met if online harm caused death. 

Apart from penalties, 2.6 per cent of the respondents suggested that perpetrators should be banned from using the internet for a period of time, while 3 per cent said that online behaviour can be curtailed by removing online anonymity. 

2.4 per cent of these respondents also shared that a third party like the police or a dedicated party should be brought in to patrol the online space and regulate content. 

Additionally, there was 3 per cent who believed that prevention starts from the root, and the public should be better educated about what constitutes online harm and what recourses are available to victims. 

However, Chua observed that there appears to be a lack of consensus on what should actually be defined as harmful online behaviour.

"The process to regulate harmful behaviour will be a long ongoing process. The government will have to facilitate the discussion with the wider society on what should specifically be defined as harmful online behaviour," he said.

"As recourse to online harm becomes more defined, education will also be needed to foster a more specific social consensus on ethical standards, and to inform the wider public on channels of restitution." 

'Read the better comments'

For Rurusama, she has since accepted the fact that these online harms "come with the job". 

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So, one way she deals with the hate is by simply not reading the comments. 

"I think there's no way to stop people from commenting. It's the internet, no one can say yes or no to certain things," she elaborated. 

"But the only thing as a creator that you can [do] to protect yourself and your mental health is just to stop reading it or actively choose to read the better comments." 

And while she does have her fair share of nasty comments, she feels like she has it better than most. 

"I think every content creator has received these at some point. It just depends on the degree of how bad it is. I think mine is really mild as compared to a lot of other creators."

melissateo@asiaone.com

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